Awakening
by Shax Davis
Summary: After a runin with an old enemy, Sonic uncovers an ancient plot that puts more than just Mobius in danger's path. Over the course of his adventure, he will face new challenges, and learn that the greatest enemy he will ever have to conquer is himself.
1. One: Into the Antiverse

AWAKENING  
A Sonic the Hedgehog story 

All characters (C) SEGA, Archie and SP Davis 2005 (unless otherwise noted)  
Used without permission

---

Foreword:

New readers (post-2004) should be advised that this story does not immediately follow Project Mobitropolis. There are several years in Sonic's life in between. The events of these years were, at one time, written down, but the stories (to put it bluntly) sucked. I will be rewriting them eventually. I know this is a confusing way of doing things, and I'm sorry for that. I've tried to write this in such a way that, hopefully, it won't matter.

My older readers (with whom this tale is already infamous) should be advised that these chapters have been changed since they were last public. Some of them have been changed very little. Others (like this chapter) have been re-written almost completely. It's probably best that you read the whole thing again, or you'll almost certainly miss something crucial. The soul of the tale is the same.

In a few ways, this story is intrinsically connected with Project Mobitropolis. They share similar storylines, but explore unique concepts. I hope that fans of _Project _will enjoy this too.

I am aware that there are grammatical errors in this story; To risk sounding like a cop-out, they're probably not my fault. This website's upload facility seems to randomly remove full stops, question marks and quotes from documents upon submission, and all I can do is try to replace them where I see them. Also, the originaldocument did contain some HTML code, especially italics tags, which are scrambled on upload. As the editing tools at this site seem to become less user-friendly every day, please understand that it is perpetually more difficult to edit my work again specifically for this site. I can however advise that this story is being published on other Sonic fansites on the web, if it is difficult to read here. There is an illustrated version published at _www dot netraptor dot org_.for reasons of bandwidth I am restricting this and other versions to text-only.

SP Davis

P.S. One more thing, the character of Kardot Mori was very generously donated by NetRaptor for a cameo appearance. She and many of the characters and concepts she mentions are naturally fully copyrighted by K.M. Hollar, used with permission. One of the morals of this story is that Sonic's reality (and ours) is so much bigger than any one person could ever comprehend. If you're confused about the role in this tale of characters penned by some other author, then hopefully it will become clearer in that context.

S

---

Whose woods these are I think I know.  
His house is in the village though,  
He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it's queer To stop without a farmhouse near,  
Between the woods and frozen lake,  
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake To see if there is some mistake,  
The only other sound's the sweep Of easy wind and downy flake.

These woods are lovely, dark and deep,  
But I have promises to keep,  
And miles to go before I sleep,  
And miles to go before I sleep.

-Robert Frost

---

One:  
Into the Antiverse

Deep inside of a parallel universe,  
It's getting harder and harder to tell what came first,  
Underwater where thoughts can breathe easily,  
Far away you were made in the sea,  
Just like me.

- Red Hot Chili Peppers

---

DISCLOSURE

I

I am about to tell you the story of a hedgehog who outran his own shadow.

This world was almost destroyed, once upon a time. Evil comes in many forms and uses many different excuses, but many times its intentions can be distilled to a single desire: Power. The presence of great power invested in a single will is almost always disasterous, and the presence of great evil in the world is always a source of misery. This is what happened when these concepts collided.

The story you are about to hear has been passed down throughout the ages. It was a source of inspiration for me when my father told it to me as a child. My father's father told it just the same as my father's father's father had told it. Now I am telling it to you. It is a true story, although you might not believe all of it - that an entire city can float suspended in the clouds, or that something made of metal and wires can have a soul, or that the power to erase the universe can lie dormant in five ancient stones. But it all happened, every word, and the weave of existance was very nearly undone by a single being who simply wanted it all.

More importantly, it was saved by a hero so legendary that his name has been passed down from generation to generation right up until now, when I pass it to you. His name was Sonic.

II

Sonic was haunted for seven days and seven nights by the apparition of his transdimensional 'twin', an entity from the antiverse who he called Cinos. The dark hedgehog's slippage into Sonic's world always seemed to be preceded by images of atrocity, pain and violence. Sonic would experience horrible nightmares and awaken in the night, drenched in sweat. Occasionally he would even wake to find Cinos standing in his hut, grinning like some deranged cannibal, enjoying his twin's ongoing torment. Sonic would blink and shake his head, and the image of Cinos would be gone. But there was one thing he knew for sure. He gritted his teeth, clenched his fists, and waited for the inevitable. His evil twin was coming.

And sure enough, seven days later, he came.

It was the first few days of the monsoon season, and you could set your watch by the coming of the rain in the Great Forest of Westerica. The clouds broke and spilled forth the cool, rejuvenating nectar of spring over the thirsty foliage. Nature's quiet orchestra played all night in the forest, always stopping short of pouring but never quite letting up. It was a steady, constant shower. But the sound of the rain couldn't fully obscure the sounds of whispers in the caves south of New Knothole.  
An opening in the rock gave out a flickering yellow light that danced across the rock surface. The candle-light projected a shadow upon the cave wall, the silhouette of a spiked figure standing near the entrance.  
A closer view would reveal that the rocky walls of this cave were amass with carved symbols. The dark figure inside ran his hands over the surface like a blind person reading braille. He read the inscriptions aloud as the light danced over them.  
"...and so... a pact... together devised in harmony... to separate evenly... the lands from the lands... the peoples from the peoples... the flow of time itself... so it was devised... so it shall be done... yes, yes, but where are they? Where are they"  
There was a crash of thunder. The spiked whisperer clawed at the wall with his already tattered gloves. "Drat," he rasped, "Out of time"  
He picked up a notebook onto which he had been scribbling down runes and heiroglyphs from the wall of the cave, and shoved it into a knapsack. Then he paused for a moment, standing silently. He turned his head to look out the mouth of the cave, as though searching for somebody. There was nothing but the sound of the rain dripping onto the foliage and the forest floor. Nevertheless, he narrowed his eyes and scowled.  
"Sonic," he rasped.  
The figure took the knapsack and strapped it onto his back. He then blew out the candle and draped himself in complete shadow, before stepping out into the rain. Taking a few initial steps, he began to jog, then finally broke into a sprint.  
He cut past the trees at such a speed as it might kill him if he were to misjudge and collide with one, but he knew how to run like most people knew how to breathe. The raindrops stung as they hit his face at this high velocity, but he gritted his teeth and did not slow. He was a bullet in the night, this stranger. The true gold medalist of the forest - he could race the cheetah and the jackrabbit and leave both in the dust. A dark blue bolt of lightning. But there was one thing that he couldn't see coming. Another dark shape emerged from the night, hauling steam just as fast as he was, and in the opposite direction. There was only enough time for him to swear loudly into the rain before the two shapes collided and both were thrown into the mud, winded and bruised. The knapsack left the figure's shoulders and flew somewhere into the black forest.  
"Idiot, learn to run," he said.  
Sonic the Hedgehog grunted and pulled his face out of the mud. He spat out a mouthful of it with a disgusted face, and rolled over onto his back. "I've been running all my life," he gasped, "You learn to run"  
Two blue hedgehogs lay together in the rain, making no effort to seek shelter from the wet and the cold, both panting and groaning. The scene wasn't reminiscent of a reunion between bitter enemies. After all, they knew each other too well to be uncomfortable in each other's presence. But neither was about to help the other to his feet or display concern for the other's health. Both hedgehogs picked themselves up, leaned against trees and wiped the mud from their eyes. Anybody standing further back might swear that there was a mirror between them.  
"What are you doing here, Cinos?" Sonic demanded, "I've got enough troubles without having to put up with your crap. Why don't you just create some mischief in your own darn universe"  
"I'm not doing anything you need to concern yourself with, dear brother," Cinos replied, "You know, believe it or not, I have a life outside of tormenting you"  
"Not in this world, you don't. There's only room for one Sonic per Mobius. Any more and you cramp my style"  
"Oh poo, Sonic, you know you have no style," Cinos snapped back. He was searching the forest floor for something, brushing his feet through the shrubbery and squinting in the darkness.  
"What are you looking for?" Sonic asked.  
"None of your freaking business, that's what." He found his knapsack with a sigh of relief. "Well, I guess I should be off then. Nice talking to you and all that. Ta-ta." He backed away with a false smile and wave, fading into the darkness as he went. His body took on an eerie translucent quality, shimmering in and out of visibility, like one imagines a ghost might look.  
"Oh no you don't!" Sonic shouted, and tackled the apparition. A powerful crack of static electricity zapped Sonic's body as the hedgehogs made physical contact. Cinos went down with a muffled thud and was torn back into full reality. "Let go of me, Sonic, you're an anchor!" he cursed.  
"I want to know what you're doing here," Sonic replied, "You're not going anywhere until I do"  
Cinos clawed and kicked at him in a snarling tantrum, but Sonic held fast.  
"Let go, Sonic! Let go, or I'll take you with me"  
"Do what you want. I'm staying with you"  
The dark hedgehog grunted and lay still under the weight of his twin. "You're a fool," he said.  
Sonic was aware that the world had begun to shift around and melt before his eyes. The rain had stopped, and the trees faded into mist. Other trees appeared out of nowhere, solidifying from the air itself. A different forest was manifesting to replace the one that was retreating into the nothingness. His stomach churned, did somersaults in his gut. His resolve dropped - Cinos really was pulling him out of time and space, dragging him into the antiverse. Had he always been able to take people with him? Or had his bizarre powers strengthened since the last time they had crossed paths?  
Sonic was too steadfast to let go of his otherworldly twin (and more than a little afraid to test what would happen if they broke contact before the process had completed), so his grip around Cinos' waist remained solid, but he closed his eyes and refused to look at the reconfiguring world until it was done changing.  
"Get off me you idiot," Cinos grunted, and Sonic opened his eyes. There was a pungent smell of pollution in the air, and he was assaulted by it immediately. These trees were withered and unhealthy, and the atmosphere was so opaque with smog that their tops weren't even visible beyond a point. There was no mistaking the half-rotten Mobius on the flipside of the universal coin. Welcome to the antiverse, can't wait to leave.  
While Sonic wasn't paying much attention, Cinos gave a mighty thrust that threw the other hedgehog off his back. Several of Cinos' spines punctured his skin in doing so, and Sonic cried out in pain and rolled over, points of blood forming on his chest and belly.  
Cinos picked himself up and wiped the mud from himself again, looking at Sonic with contempt. "I hope you're happy with yourself," he snarled, "I'm going to leave you here forever, Sonic. Better get used to the place. Rot and die, please"  
With that, he spun around and made like the wind. Sonic was too slow getting to his feet, and all he saw was his twin's dust.  
"I hate this place," Sonic groaned, and made off in the same direction.

III

Chagrin Las Mortis stood as the antiverse equivalent of Mobitropolis, and although the cities shared the same location, they had very little in common. In fact, Chagrin L.M. was much more similar in outward appearance to Robotropolis. But this city was not populated by robots. Brigands and thieves, yes, but all of them flesh. A brutal dictator sat on the throne, his leadership remaining unchallenged by any mad professor. It was understandable, too - Robotnik might actually have been quite comfortable here.  
Sonic was crestfallen upon stepping out of the forest into the city, and prepared himself for a bad day. Nobody ever had a good day in Chagrin Las Mortis. That was like having a cool day in Hades.  
The place was just as he remembered it. The streets were overflowing with the garbage that nobody could be bothered cleaning, and one had to walk in the gutters because the footpaths were overcrowded with the homeless. The buildings dilapidated and unkempt, the sky blackened with pollution. Grime covered everything like paint.  
People had a habit of finding themselves stabbed and mugged when they spent too long in the streets, so Sonic ducked into a bar - a run-down looking tavern called the Crow and Corkscrew. He was too young to be on the premises by the law of his own land, but nobody gave much thought to the law in Chagrin Las Mortis. Nobody in the tavern even turned their head when Sonic walked in. He disturbed a cloud of flies who were contentedly buzzing around the bench, doing whatever it is that flies do. Who knows what real purpose flies serve anywhere? They were all just flies, even in the antiverse.  
An obese boar in a grimy singlet tended the bar, and he grunted at Sonic as his way of asking what the hedgehog wanted.  
"Just a lemonade, thanks," Sonic replied.  
The boar burst out into a fit of laughter, and waddled away. When he returned a few moments later, he slammed a pint of dark, cloudy beer in front of Sonic, who gave an insincere nod of thanks.  
The hedgehog sighed and stared at the lager with his head propped up on his fist, and for a moment he considered drinking it. His situation was certainly bothersome enough to consider intoxication as a viable alternative to reality. He changed his mind quickly when he decided that, if it tasted as bad as it smelled, he was probably better off drinking a mug of insecticide. He screwed up his face and reached for a bowl of nuts, but stopped his hand when he saw that they were green and furry with mould.  
"This entire world should carry a Surgeon General's Advisory," he muttered.  
Cinos' whereabouts eluded Sonic completely, and he began to grow very concerned about his dastardly reflection's activities. Cinos was as sickened by Sonic's world as Sonic was by his, he would feel uncomfortable in any world where it was considered taboo for recreational murder to be regarded a hobby. From what little Sonic understood about the process of 'sliding' from one universe to another, it was also apparently much more difficult for Cinos to slip into Sonic's world than it was to return to his native realm. As far as Sonic could figure, Cinos had no reason to make the journey unless he had some kind of mischief on his mind. It wasn't as though he was on holiday.  
But why had Cinos been avoiding him? That was something new, something unprecedented. Whatever his reflection was hatching this time, he didn't want Sonic knowing about it, and that was disturbing.  
"Hey!" somebody shrieked from elsewhere in the bar, and Sonic turned to see what the commotion was about. He figured that he was probably about to witness a pub brawl, but choked up when he saw that it was he who was the centre of attention.  
A gang of youths were approaching him, all of them dressed in the height of antiverse fashion, which only appeared bizarre and ludicrous to Sonic's eyes. The apparent leader was a ginger cat with a patch over his right eye. A silver chain connected his left ear to his upper lip by way of a number of piercings, and his one good eye was adorned with long, black false eyelashes. Attached to his left hand were five metal claws like knives. The image was completed by a tattered pinstripe suit and a top hat. His three companions were wearing similar garb. Sonic looked down at those metal claws and gulped.  
"Thought I says you," the cat said, "never to come round here again"  
"Uhh," Sonic stammered, "You're mistaking me for somebody else"  
"Like dickens I am!" the cat snapped back, "You isn't too good at hearing, methink. I says to you just yesterday that you isn't welcome here no more. Now I going to have to cut you bad"  
"Can't we talk this over like reasonable gentlemen?" Sonic asked.  
"Oh, mercy!" The cat grinned, he had a mouth full of buck teeth that pronged out between his lips, and he looked at his companions. "The blue spinebag wants to talk! I tell you what we talk about, blue spinebag. I show you the language we speak here in Chagrin Las Mortis." He raised his metal-clawed hand and wiggled his fingers about in front of his good eye.  
"I knew this was going to be a bad day, I just knew it." Sonic lamented. He stood down from the bar stool and approached the cat and his gang as though gearing up for a fight. All of a sudden his eyes flared, and he pointed to the door and cried out, "Everybody get down! It's the fashion police"  
The gang members, clearly none too bright, followed his gaze with some degree of confusion, and it was all the distraction that Sonic needed to pour on his famous speed and bolt from the tavern. The cat let out a shriek of anger, and Sonic could hear him shouting after him.  
"Run, spinebag! Run away, I get you later"  
"He who fights and runs away," Sonic muttered as he ran. It was clear that Cinos had made his fair share of enemies even here, and it didn't work well in his favour that they shared the same face. He found himself almost yearning for the dark and webbed streets of Terantulopolis, where he would be if he were in the right world. "I don't think I like cities anymore," he said to himself, "If we ever get rid of Terantulopolis, I'm voting we replace it with a fast food joint"  
This place would have to do for now, but he wasn't even going to entertain the very real possibility that he would be here for a long time. After all, Cinos guarded the exit to the antiverse, and it was he who Sonic would have to consult with to gain passage to his homeworld. This he knew, but was loathe to admit.

IV/Cinos

The dark hedgehog did not make his dark plans alone. His company, dark too, sat with him in shadow, somewhere in the dismal underworld of the city that the denizens of the antiverse often referred to as the Crust of Abhorrence. Then again, this entire world was horrid. The grass was always browner on the other side, if you called the antiverse home.  
Cinos scowled as he handed the other his notebook, and the companion took it and looked it over.  
"This is what you wanted," the hedgehog rasped, "Now, can you do this, or am I wasting my time with you"  
"Oh, I can do it, I can do it," the other replied, "Don't you concern your blue spikey head over whether I have the talent, because brother, I have the talent." He lifted his head and gave a grin that looked as though it came from the verge of madness.  
Cinos did not have the tendancy or the inclination to make friends, and so the creature he now consorted with was bound to him through an arrangement of mutual benefit, a kind of perverted business deal. He was a porcupine, a member of a forgotten and dead race left behind by the world. Above the waist, he was decorated with the tattoos, ribbons and rings that honoured an ancient pagan theology long since buried by modern civilisation. Below the waist, he wore a pair of brand new jeans still rigid with crisp blue denim, and expensive brand-name sneakers relatively untainted by the grimy underfoot of Chagrin Las Mortis. His fingers were callused and lethe; almost every one adorned with a valuable ring or two, or three. The odd exception was the middle finger of his left hand, on which he wore a cheap and tacky-looking mood ring with a colour-changing bulb on top of its plastic frame. At this moment it was bright blue, which, according to the archaic lore of novelty rings, meant that he was proud.  
"Well, what do you need, then?" Cinos asked.  
"Toothpaste," the porcupine replied, still studying the hedgehog's notes.  
"Excuse me"  
The porcupine looked up. "I crave... minty... freshness," he said.  
"I imean/i what do you ineed/i for the irecipe/i, Rasputan"  
"Oh, that. Well, I should have everything I need here, I think. Uh, I think. Wait, let me check"  
The abandoned building where they conducted their business was littered with a mess of objects, from candles to herbs to vials of ambiguous liquids and animal parts. The porcupine rooted through the array of articles (nervously and chaotically, like someone perpetually overcaffeinated) and gave a cry of victory.  
"Ha-ha! All set, K"  
"Great," Cinos replied, "Why don't we get started. While we're young." He leaned back and crossed his arms in a way that showed clearly when he said 'we' he meant 'you'. The porcupine pulled on an oversized pair of white gloves without removing any of his rings, and picked up a large bag of salt. He began pouring it, creating a large salt circle on the dusty and grimy floor. He then started rifling through his herbs, selecting certain ingredients carefully and pedantically while the hedgehog watched.

V

The nature of life in this dreadful city almost reminded Sonic that he, too, had once been in a similar situation to many of these homeless unfortunates. The difference was that he had made a life picking pockets for spare change, whereas many of these vagrants looked at him as though they would just as soon cut his throat and bleed him in an alley. Sonic was thankful that the sun had risen before he arrived in the city, giving him a full twelve hours before he had to worry about nighttime. It was just a feeling, but looking into the hate-filled faces of those he passed in the street, he didn't think that many people such as himself survived in Chagrin Las Mortis past dark.  
"All I have to do," he muttered to himself, "Is find Cinos and talk him into taking me back home. Yeah. Easy"  
Easy as nailing jelly to a tree.  
Before he could even complete the thought, he perceived a great commotion toward the main square of the city. It struck him as logical that it would be the safest option to consider, to be around a large number of people, but then again, logic wasn't logic in the antiverse. The real fact was that anything could happen at any time.  
In the square where the main streets intersected, a gathering of people were moaning and shouting, some even throwing things. Sonic tried to see the object of their fury, and he saw that the dissenters were congregated around a mobian (his race indeterminate) draped in filthy, flowing robes and standing atop a wooden crate in the middle of the road. He was waving his arms around with vivacious enthusiasm, pointing to the populace and shouting ardent and somewhat urgent-sounding information, although his words didn't seem to be popular. Sonic mingled in with the crowd to try and hear what he was saying.  
"And where will you be when death comes to knock on your door?" the mobian demanded, "Where will you be when the world opens up to swallow you whole? The fires are coming! The fires are coming, don't you ever doubt it! Time is short, my friends, and the end of times is right around the corner! You know not the day, nor the hour. There will be a great clamor, like the explosion of a billion suns at once. The angel of death will descend from on high and blow his trumpet, and Mobius will be dissolved in the fires of the awakening. I have seen it"  
"Seen it with the help of a gallon of ale sloshing around your gut!" somebody shouted, and a hearty, cruel laugh rose up from the crowd.  
"Mock me not!" the mobian shrieked, "It is you who will be asked to stand before the highest authority when time has run out for this world. The time for repentance is now, for the Lord of All Things will offer no mercy when the fires come. You"  
Sonic looked up and saw that the ranting mobian was now pointing directly at him. He saw the fanatic's wide, glaring eyes, and saw that they were milky with cateracts, whitened and unseeing. And yet, it felt as though those blind eyes were staring right into him, cutting through his body and burning a hole into the centre of him.  
"You will have four Awakenings before your quest is complete, and then you will take his place," he thought he heard the fanatic whisper, "When the two of you stand before the fires of the underworld, it is you who will take on his sins. You will take his place, and it is you who will bring on the end of all things"  
"Excuse me?" the hedgehog asked, but the mobian's gaze was once again blind, and swept over the crowd without discrimination, never settling on any one person.  
"The fires are coming!" he shrieked, "The fires are coming soon, so it is written and so it shall be! I have seen it! Repent! Repent"  
Sonic turned and saw that someone in the crowd was staring at him intently. This bizarre figure was a young fox, and Sonic figured that it could almost be Tails. The kid was short and dumpy, hair mussed up and unclean. He was dressed in a torn shirt and pants so dirty that they could have originally been any colour in the rainbow, but now they were as brown as the soil. Disturbingly, there were bloody rags tied around both of his forearms. His face was heavily pimpled, and on his forehead there was a symbol. Carved into his flesh, as though with a razor blade. It looked like a capital 'M'. The kid's eyes were wide in an expression very much like awe. Sonic was taken aback at the sight of him.  
"M-m-mas-" the kid stammered, "Master? I- I can- I- I see, master"  
"And what's your problem?" Sonic demanded, "What is this, did someone leave a door open at the nuthouse or something"  
The kid seemed scared out of his wits the moment Sonic began to speak, and ran from the crowd into the shadows of a nearby alleyway. In the darkness he stopped, turned, and resumed staring at Sonic with that venerating (and somewhat spooky) gaze.  
"I hate this place so much," Sonic muttered, and turned away from the fanatical preacher, the rioting crowd and the leering fox-kid. Before he could get far, somebody approached him from behind and put a hand on his shoulder.  
"Now what?" he asked, and turned around. The figure behind him, unlike most in this city, was clean and neatly dressed in thick robes. A wolf, with a stony expression that Sonic couldn't read.  
"He wants to talk to you," the wolf said.  
"Who, the kid"  
The wolf appeared confused. Sonic looked to where the strange fox had been standing, but he had vanished. The wolf followed his gaze, but, seeing nothing, turned back to Sonic and spoke again.  
"He's seen you wandering around, he wishes to speak with you. Come, there isn't much time"  
"Who?" Sonic demanded, "Who wants to speak with me"  
"Thaldymort," the wolf replied, "Come. Please"  
"Whatever." Sonic followed the stranger, judging him to be a safer choice of company than anybody else around here. The eerie kid with the symbol cut onto his forehead like a cattle brand stuck in his mind, and he hoped not to come across him again. As the wolf led him toward the buildings, he heard laughing from the shadows, and looked to see an elderly vagrant under a blanket of newspaper, cackling as though he had heard some fabulous joke.  
"What's so funny?" Sonic asked, but the vagrant didn't reply. His laugh tapered off, and he rolled over and went to sleep.

VI

Sonic's strange guide took him to a building that looked as though it may have been abandoned, and he still half expected that the wolf was going to pull a knife out of his immaculate robes and demand money, or just stab him for the fun of it, and Sonic braced himself to run at the first sign of trouble. Once inside, however, the hedgehog saw that the building was actually a relatively well-kept church. The pews were unpainted and wooden, and the altar was crude, but the place was clean and homely.  
Sonic's first shock was the fact that a clean and undesecrated place of worship was rare in Chagrin Las Mortis. Few people in the city had time for such concepts as faith and spirituality, being too preoccupied with thieving and debauchery to be worried about their souls. But what shocked him more, and what hadn't occurred to him at first, was the fact that he recognised the symbols that adorned the church. They were symbols from his own world. He had never heard of one religion being shared by both worlds, being that the antiverse had developed its own cultures and beliefs that had always been completely alien to him.  
"I have brought him," the wolf said, and closed the door behind Sonic. The church was quiet and comforting. It may just have been the only comfortable place in this wretched city, and Sonic was compelled with a great urge to stay.  
"Come closer, my child," somebody called from further inside, and Sonic saw now that there was somebody standing in front of the pulpit, back towards him. The other figure was wearing similar robes to those of the wolf.  
Sonic approached this tall figure now, and the wolf walked behind him, as though this were some kind of ambush. But there was no way that these two could stop him if he decided to leave, neither of them looked as though they could put up a fight even if they had to.  
"You are the original," said the taller figure.  
"Huh"  
"I've seen you wandering the streets," the figure replied, and turned around. Sonic saw that he, too, was a wolf, though a much older one than the stranger who had led him here. This mobian's fur was turning silver, and there were crow's feet in the corners of his eyes. "You are far from home, yes? You hail from the otherverse"  
Sonic's heart flipped. Few people in the antiverse were aware that another reality existed parallel to his own, just as few people in his own world knew of the antiverse.  
"How do you know about that?" Sonic asked.  
The elder wolf smiled. "I have been there"  
"Who are you"  
The stranger's smile faded, and he stared past Sonic to the wall. Sonic followed the gaze and saw that he was looking at a holy symbol.  
"My name is Father Thaldymort. This is my charge, Yale"  
Yale, the younger wolf, nodded without offering any expression whatsoever.  
"What do you know about all this?" Sonic asked, "What do you know about me"  
Father Thaldymort sighed, the sigh of one on whose shoulders the weight of the world frequently rests. "I know of the otherverse, the uni-verse as it is known. I have seen it, I have walked there, prayed there. A few are privelaged with the ability to slip between the sheets of reality, to see the other side, but I haven't been there in a long time. A very long time." There was a kind of sparkle in his eyes like he had been granted the briefest glimpse of heaven once upon a time, and was left only with the memory. Sonic considered that, compared to the antiverse, his homeworld probably did look like heaven.  
"But how do you know about me?" he pressed.  
"I see it all over you," Thaldymort replied, "You have the look about you. At first, naturally, I thought that you were him. But you have that look about you... when you have seen, you don't forget the look of it"  
"You thought I was who? Cinos"  
Father Thaldymort nodded. "When you spend too long in a world where you do not belong... your immortal soul, it leaves behind a kind of residue. Like a photo negative; like the reverse image you see on the backs of your eyelids after you stare at a light source for too long a time. He is that residue, he is a being who shouldn't rightly be. I do hope that is why you have come. I hope that you are here to deal with him"  
"That's right," Sonic replied, "That's exactly why I'm here"  
"Good. I mean no disrespect, but he is after all somewhat your responsibility. You are, to some degree, kindred. And he is very dangerous, my son. Very dangerous"  
"What is he doing"  
The priest frowned, and looked up at the holy symbol again, as though he were innately praying, for strength or for faith or whatever else. "He is trying to unlock the secrets of the Old Ways"  
"The old ways of what?" Sonic asked, "Listen, don't speak in riddles with me. If you know what's going on here, just tell me"  
"No riddles. The Old Ways... they are the link between our two worlds, my son. They are the fork in the road that divulged us on our seperate paths. This world, you call it the antiverse, and the other, your own world, the uni-verse. They were once one and the same"  
"I don't follow"  
Thaldymort sighed again, and made a gesture to his apprentice, who approached promptly. The priest whispered something to him, and he nodded and hurried away. Thaldymort leaned back on the pulpit and nested his head in his hands like a philosopher deep in thought.  
"Not too long ago," he said, "I began to notice that my congregation was thinning. I used to hold a modest weekly service in this holy place. I reserve that it is only through the intervention of a power higher than us all that we remained undisturbed in the centre of this fallen city. This is a terribly wretched world, and most are too settled in their sins to be bothered by it. But a few did find their faith, and they came to me for guidance. But these troubled souls... many of them found a new source of comfort. A new teacher. He introduced them to a long forgotten doctrine practiced when mobiankind was young. He introduced them to the Old Ways"  
"Cinos," Sonic murmured, "But Cinos is a murderer, he cares about nothing and he's no older in spirit than I am. What the heck does he know about these Old Ways"  
"The one you call Cinos... Around here, he is known as Kinnos Sharpe. Over a year ago he left Chagrin Las Mortis and vanished, nobody knew what had become of him and few cared. But recently, he returned. What he had brought back with him... not only a vast knowledge of ancient lore, but an actual practitioner of the Old Ways. A porcupine alchemist, a descendent of those who settled Mobius when our worlds were one. Together, they formed what has become known as the Cult of the Awakening. Half of my congregation defected to him and now listen to his every word, they believe he will cleanse the world"  
Yale returned with a kind of rosary on a chain and a holy book, and gave both items to the priest, who touched the rosary to his forehead and closed his eyes.  
"So, he's running some kind of cult," Sonic said, "How is that dangerous"  
"The Old Ways were buried for a reason," Thaldymort replied, "As I said, our worlds were once the same. It was the Old Ways that diverged them, and it is the Old Ways that hold the key to reuniting them. What Sharpe has discovered... What the Cult believes he has discovered... is the recipe to break the ancient incantation that keeps our worlds seperate, a wall constructed of an inconceivable amount of mystical energy. In doing so, the legend claims, he will take all of the energy into himself, and gain the powers of a deity. They believe our worlds will join together to form the Megaverse, and he will rule it all"  
Sonic groaned. "Cinos always did think he was God," he said, "Sounds like he just wants to make it official. You don't believe any of this garbage, do you"  
The priest opened his eyes. "I've travelled the world from sea to sea, my son," he said, "I've seen remarkable things. Things that defy anything you know about reason and logic. Things that have tested my faith. Things that have strengthened it"  
"And this stuff about Old Ways and the end of the universe," Sonic said, "Has this strengthened your faith or tested it"  
A wry grin crept up on the priest's face, although it didn't seem to be so much a grin as a kind of wince. "A lot of both." He paused, and then asked, "Do you share the faith, son"  
Sonic took a step back and appeared flushed. "Hah! Uhh, not really. I mean, I don't go to church if that's what you mean"  
"But do you believe in God"  
Sonic was noticeably uncomfortable, and hoped that this was not about to turn into a sermon. He told the truth, but he was noncommittal. "I think so. I mean to say that it kinda makes sense, but that's as far as I... Uh... I just can't"  
"Can't commit," the priest said, "To something you can't know for certain"  
"Yeah"  
Father Thaldymort nodded. "I can relate to that"  
"So why are you... you know"  
"Because one day something dawned on me," the wolf replied, "And that is that we never know anything for certain. Faith is inherent in every decision we make every day"  
"There's a difference between believing in God and believing that Cinos can be one," Sonic replied, "There's a difference between having faith and being gullible. After all, if what he's doing is really possible, then his cult isn't really a cult, is it"  
"All I can say," Thaldymort said, "Is that Kinnos Sharpe is a creature who doesn't belong. I have seen into his eyes and I have seen an abyss that stretches to the edge of time. He doesn't quite have a soul... he has something like a soul, but it isn't right. He can only bring misery and suffering wherever he goes. When you share my faith, you see that whether or not his claims are truly legitimate is scarecely relevant. He has the initiative to destroy everything he touches. If his initiative turns to ability for even a moment... God help us all"  
"I see what you mean," Sonic admitted, "He's killed people before, just to see the colour of their blood. Whatever he's looking for, he probably means to kill again. And in that case, I guess he has to be stopped"  
"At all costs," the priest replied.  
Sonic nodded. "Yeah. Okay, thanks. Uh, so, do you know where this cult of his assembles"  
"I can show you the way. And I will pray for you to be shown the right choices"  
"But choices are a matter of faith, right"  
"You can only be shown choices. It is up to you to make them."

VII/Cinos

There was another set of eyes watching the priest and his one-hedgehog congregation in the antiquated church that morning, and another set of ears listening to the sermon. The wolf Yale led Sonic outside, and the priest was left alone. Only then did the unseen visitor speak.  
"Thaldymort"  
The priest appeared momentarily startled, but regained his composure quickly.  
"Sharpe," he said, and a dark figure dropped from the rafters behind him, though he did not turn to face the intruder.  
Cinos, or Kinnos Sharpe, smiled at the sound of his name, and the smile looked like the maw of a shark all jagged and hungry. His eyes blazed and he netted his fingers together in his unwashed and shredded white gloves.  
"My ears were burning, old dog," he said.  
Father Thaldymort still did not give the hedgehog the pleasure of eye contact, and stood with his back to Cinos. The hedgehog's fiery gaze still burned holes in his back, and his eyes crept up the wall to fall upon the holy symbol that adorned it. He wrapped his rosary so tight around his palm that his fingers hurt.  
"It'll be a lot more than just your ears that will burn, where you're going," he said.  
"See, that's where you're wrong, feller," Cinos replied, "My time is just beginning. The runes are practically mine already, all I have to do is snatch 'em up. It'll be the party of the millennium, Thal, but... I dunno, you haven't been very good lately so I'm not sure you're invited"  
"I would like you to leave," Thaldymort said, "You desecrate this place with your foul presence. You've made your point, now have off with you, take your sinful business elsewhere"  
"Aw, come on Thaldymort"  
"That's iFather/i Thaldymort to the likes of you"  
"Sure, Big Daddy Thal, whatever you say. Those are some pretty tough words, hombre, ain't you scared of me? People in your situation don't come out of it alive real often, especially when I get to feeling a little... stabby"  
"I'm not scared of dying and I'm certainly not scared of you," the priest snapped, "I for one don't fear entering the house of God"  
Cinos' shark-bite smile faded, and with a flash of blue wind he grabbed the priest from behind and pressed the blade of a knife against his neck. The weapon glinted in the light, and Thaldymort's hands trembled as he grasped his holy trinket.  
"Your God is about to be evicted from his house," Cinos whispered in his ear, "I'm moving in, rent-free, the best bachelor pad in the entire Megaverse, Big Daddy. And hey! Good news! I'm going to let you live today, but only because I want you to watch when I burn your Heaven to the ground. I want to see what the face of a preacher looks like when he sees that he has nothing left to hope for. And I hope you don't think that my handsome young doppelganger from the otherverse is going to save the day, because his little adventure is already ending"  
He slashed Thaldymort from his chin to his ear, leaving a bloody gash that the priest grasped at, his rosary dropping to the ground.  
"That's to remind you that I'm coming back," Cinos rasped, and sprinted from the church in a gale of shrieking laughter.

VIII

Sonic stared up at Hawke's Manse from the shadows of the backstreets of Chagrin Las Mortis, its boarded-up windows and smog-blackened paintwork working to make what was once a sort of gothic castle even more imposing. Father Thaldymort the priest had directed him to this forgotten piece of dark architecture, for it was apparently the base of operations for Cinos' bizarre cult. He almost considered ending his journey here, for to step foot inside this building felt like the polar opposite of stepping inside Thaldymort's church. There was no safety here, it was as though an aura of evil hung like drapes over the entire place.  
Hawke's Manse was once somebody's home, a mansion in the black heart of the city, but it had been abandoned to fall apart and rot like everything else on this most wretched version of Mobius. Gargoyles like sentinals guarded the mansion from the corners of its collapsing roof. Dead trees in the yard cast tentacles of black shadow across the mouldy walls.  
As Sonic hesitated before the dark house, somebody approached him from the empty street, and he turned to see a delinquent youth (the absence on his face indicated he was either drugged or inexperienced) holding a knife in a threatening manner and staring in his direction.  
"GimmeallthemoneyorI'llkillyouI'llkillyou!" the youth shrieked almost incomprehensibly.  
"Hey," Sonic replied calmly, "Hey man"  
But the youth's eyes flared even wider as he looked over his victim, and he dropped the knife onto the street and screamed. "It's you! It's you! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" He sprinted back from whence he had come.  
Sonic sighed and turned his gaze once again to Hawke's Manse. Looking like his evil twin came with its benefits in the antiverse, it seemed. Sonic's own abilities and exploits had gained him fame and celebrity in his own world, so it stood to reason that Cinos, his abilities the same but his morality reversed, would gain him infamy and notoriety in the antiverse. Cinos, or Kinnos Sharpe as he was apparently known here, was probably the king of atrocity in a world where atrocity was the chief currency.  
Another voice yelled at him from the other end of the street, a voice which decided for him what he was to do next.  
"Hey blue spinebag! Not finished with you yet! I viddy one dead spinebag soon to be hurt bad!" The gang from the bar, led by the slang-speaking cat bladed from head to toe, were rushing towards him howling and laughing like a pack of hyenas surrounding their prey. Cinos had evidently made his share of enemies as well. Sonic, not wishing for an encounter with these thugs, jumped the steel fence of Hawke's Manse and rushed towards the house, grabbing hold of a drainpipe and scaling it.  
The gang watched him from the other side of the fence, laughing and shouting abuse at him. A bottle flew through the air and smashed against the wall beside him.  
"Climb, spinebag, climb!" the cat shouted, "Nowhere to go from there! We catch you later"  
Sonic reached a boarded-up window and kicked his way through the rotting wood barrier. He gripped the windowsill and swung inside the dilapidated mansion. Looking about the place, old broken furniture covered by moth-eaten and rotted sheets, collapsing walls and cobwebs like curtains, he couldn't help worrying that the place might fall down around him.  
Why hadn't vandals burned or torn this old house down long ago? For that matter, he could hear the hollering and laughter of the gang outside and wondered why they didn't pour over the fence to flush him out? The dark peoples of Chagrin Las Mortis may have embraced the darkness, but they seemed to be able to sense when an evil much greater than themselves was afoot, and they feared it just as much as anybody else would. Hawke's Manse was a black spot, like a bruise on the flesh of an apple, except that it was a rot on the flesh of the world. Sonic had sensed it when he had looked upon those snarling and broken gargoyles, and the people of Chagrin Las Mortis could sense it as well. They might not know exactly why, but nobody would step foot in this place. Nobody but Sonic's evil twin and his twisted followers.  
As Sonic turned to descend deeper into the black house, something moved quickly alongside him, and though he was fast enough to raise his arms in defense, he wasn't quite able to fend off the attack. Somebody beat at him with what appeared to be a plank of wood, beat him in a frenzied, half-insane manner, shrieking all the while. Sonic yelled too, in pain and in shock, desperately trying to get an attack of his own in.  
Just before his attacker beat him unconscious, Sonic saw the face of a young fox with something like an 'M' carved into his forehead.

IX

"You can only be shown choices," the disembodied voice of Father Thaldymort echoed through his head, "It is up to you to make them"  
Sonic's head exploded with pain and he groaned. Something poked him in the eye, hard, but the pain wasn't nearly as bad as the agony on the side of his head. He could feel blood cooling on that side, dripping onto his neck. The crazy kid with the carved symbol may have fractured his skull with that hunk of wood. He wished now that he had tried his luck with the gang in the street.  
Something poked him in the eye again, harder, and this time that pain was more significant. He opened his eyes and squinted until the blurs started to make sense. Someone was kneeling in front of him, laughing. An orange-furred mobian wearing jeans and sneakers, his upper body adorned all over with strange symbols painted in some kind of blue wax. The mobian was laughing, the snorting-chortling laugh of an idiot, and poking Sonic in the eye with one outstretched finger. His fingers were covered in rings.  
"His eye's squishy," the mobian chortled.  
Sonic bit the finger. The mobian's laugh cut off immediately and was replaced by a cutting scream, and he pulled back and started to dance, shrieking and grasping at his bleeding finger. Sonic's teeth had removed one of the rings when his victim had reclaimed his digit, and he turned and spat the trinket onto the ground. The mobian returned to him, snarling with rage, and slapped him hard. Several of the rings gashed him, and now he was bleeding from both sides of his head. Sonic moved to stand up and proceed to beat this person within an inch of his life, but found that he was held down by heavy chains. Like it or not, he was at the mercy of his captors.  
Who or what was the half-mad figure standing over him? His race was unknown to Sonic, appearing as perhaps something halfway between a hedgehog and an echidna, and all at once it dawned on him that Father Thaldymort had mentioned a companion that Cinos had brought back from his travels in the antiverse. A porcupine, a member of a buried and presumed extinct race from Mobius' history. This living fossil was ancient above the waist, all ribbons, rings and wax designs, but modern and even somewhat trendy below. His new blue jeans were slightly smeared with the blue substance he had used to paint his upper body. His fingers were dressed in more rings of different shapes and colours than Sonic was able to count, and the biggest was topped with the bright dome bauble of a mood ring. It was red, and it was easy to presume that red meant anger.  
As Sonic's sight returned to him, he began to sense that there were others nearby. He could see a number of blurred shapes in the dim light. As he squinted, the shapes coalesced and he could see faces. At least a dozen mobians cloaked in ragged clothes, their faces absent of expression, sat cross-legged in a half-circle around the room.  
Each one had a symbol carved into their forehead, something like a capital 'M' but with an extra tick on the end of it, like an afterthought or a punctuating mark. They all looked fatigued and impoverished, but content.  
The porcupine had retrieved his spat-out ring and moved to beat Sonic again, but a familiar raspy voice held his hand.  
"Rasputan, that's enough"  
The porcupine scowled and moved aside, and Sonic could see the room in full. It appeared to be the basement of Hawke's Manse, all exits boarded up and nailed shut long ago, but it also carried the signs of recent use, like the Manse had awoken and begun to weave its dark mischief yet again.  
There was a circle of what appeared to be salt on the ground in front of the seated cultists, and it was ringed with lit candles. Standing in front of this circle was Cinos, alias Kinnos Sharpe, Sonic's otherworldy nemesis, baring his usual sharky grin and fiery bloodshot eyes. He was wearing a leather jacket, half-zipped, and either side of him was a bulging suitcase. By all appearances he looked as though he was about to board a train and chug off over the horizon. Cinos approached Sonic and kneeled before his twin, who tried his best at giving an intimidating glare, although he knew that they were both far beyond the ability to intimidate each other by now.  
"You know," Cinos said, "They have an expression in Chagrin Las Mortis. It goes something like this: 'If your enemy should cross you once, applaud him. If your enemy should cross you twice, destroy him.' I've given you enough chances, oh brother, but you're so insistent with your moral crusade that you just can't say die. I can't say I didn't expect you to keep looking for me, after all, I do know you just as well as you know yourself." He sighed and flicked Sonic's nose, and the physical contact produced a spark of energy. Sonic flinched and bared his teeth.  
Cinos sighed. "But I'm not going to destroy you, Sonic. After all your exploits and heroic adventures I really don't think you deserve to meet your end chained down in some basement while I cut you up like a savage. Besides, time is short, and I have so much to do"  
"You realise I'm just going to keep chasing you," Sonic said, "I'm going to stop you, one way or another, wherever you go"  
"No, brother, you won't," Cinos replied, "Because where I'm going is out of your reach"  
Sonic looked up at his twin, looked over the travelling cases, and came to a shocking realisation. Cinos was about to catch a train, all right. The non-stop express train to the otherverse.  
"You're going back to my world," he muttered.  
"Bingo!" Cinos explained, and clicked his fingers. "This world is, after all, the artificial one. Much as I loathe to admit it, your world was the first, Sonic. The porcupines, the mother-race of Mobius, cast all of their enchantments in the uni-verse, and it's your world that's the conduit. I'll only have to suffer it long enough to snatch up the runes, then all of existence is my playground. Isn't that cool"  
"Runes, runes, what... runes?" Sonic spluttered, "Have you gone absolutely bonkers, Cinos"  
"Five stones," Cinos said, "Scattered across Mobius, each marked with an insignia, one fifth of the code that breaks the barrier between this world and the other. You put them together, you read the code, you awaken an ancient energy that's been dormant since the dawn of civilisation. More energy than you can possibly imagine, the energy to shake worlds apart. Really, Sonic, after all you've seen and heard, is it really that hard for you to believe"  
"You'll never be a god, Cinos," Sonic said, "And besides. You can't slide into my world from here. You'll land right in the middle of Terantulopolis, and they're none too fond of blue hedgehogs, even the crazy sadistic kind"  
"Fear not, dear brother!" Cinos announced, and he picked up his suitcases. "I know what I'm doing. I've planned this little vacation every step of the way"  
Carrying the cases, he stepped inside the salt circle. The porcupine, Rasputan, gave a twisted grin and a salute to the captive hedgehog, and stepped in as well. The cultists surrounding them all raised their hands and began whispering in frantic, awed voices.  
"Don't do this, you rat!" Sonic shouted, rattling his chains.  
"Farewell, brother!" Cinos said, "Look after the place until I get back! The next time we meet will be the end of the world"  
Cinos, the porcupine, and everything else inside the circle began to fade and dim. Their bodies took on a waning translucence. They were sliding.  
Sonic shouted after them, but his evil twin had departed reality to such a degree that he probably couldn't hear. After a while, the barely-visible ghosts of Cinos and Rasputan turned and walked across the room. A few of the cultists reached for them, but touched nothing but air. The dimensional travellers walked right through the wall of Hawke's Manse and vanished from sight.  
Sonic swore and rattled his chains again. Now he truly was done for. Stuck in the antiverse and the last train back home had just departed without him. Stranded in a hostile and bizarre dimension, chained to the floor in an evil house, surrounded by maddened cultists. Just fantastic.  
"You guys are completely ridiculous, did you know that?" he asked.  
"Master Sharpe has departed for the otherverse to make a better world for us all," one of the cultists said.  
"Yeah, yeah," Sonic replied, "So can you take these chains off me, please"  
"You are the devil-twin," another cultist announced, "And you shall remain bound until Master Sharpe returns to banish you from eternity"  
"That's the plan, huh"  
The cultists appeared to close their eyes and pray to whoever it was they worshipped, and Sonic had the sinking feeling that they were praying to Cinos, the poor sick idiots. He closed his eyes too, but only to imagine home.

X

Sonic sat for a long time, picturing his homeworld and wishing to be anywhere other than where he was. He imagined his friends... Tails, Knuckles, Sally, Amy... yearned to be back in New Knothole fighting the usual enemies, the enemies who stayed put in the one universe and fought back in the traditional style, without mystical weapons and runes and old religions. While he focused on this image, something strange happened in his mind. His homeworld clarified, a picture as sharp as a photograph, and he felt like he was slipping into sleep. He was tired and fatigued, but there was something else. He had felt almost as though he had actually been going somewhere. When he opened his eyes, to his shock, the basement of Hawke's Manse appeared as though it wasn't entirely there, like there was the undercurrent of another reality just underneath its surface. The shock dragged him back into full reality.  
Had he been sliding?  
Sonic knew that Cinos found it easier to slide into his native antiverse than out of it. He had also taken for granted the idea that Cinos was the only entity who possessed the ability to move between worlds at will - that was, until Father Thaldymort had mentioned that he, too, had slid before.  
Could it be that Sonic also had the capacity to skip back to his homeworld under his own power? If sliding home was easier than leaving it, could it have been within his power to return to his own Mobius all along? But how?  
(faith)  
Of course. Sonic had closed his eyes and seen his world, all he needed was to will himself there, to cross the stream between realities with his mind. After all, a baby doesn't learn to walk until it really believes it can. All that really seperated the ability to travel in three dimensions and the ability to travel in four was a barrier of faith.  
Sonic squeezed his eyes shut and pictured home. "I can do this," he whispered, "Come on, Sonic, do you want to die in the antiverse? Slide home, Sonic. Just slide home"  
The feeling came over him, the sensation that he was leaving his body and falling into a deep sleep, spinning around in his mind and entering his own mental image like it were a real place. He could hear Cinos' cultists speaking in tones of alarm and confusion, but he couldn't hear what they were saying. "The devil-twin is ascending!" it sounded like. For a moment he felt as though he was exerting effort and trying to push through some tough membrane, though he didn't feel it against his skin, it seemed like a kind of pressure that built up and released, pushing him out the other side. It felt similar to ascending a hill and then rolling down the other side. In the end he felt a little dizzy, but static.  
Sonic's rear end was suddenly wet, so he opened his eyes and saw that he was in a garbage dump.  
"Hey, what the..." he muttered, and looked around. There were buildings all around the dump, black pointed constructions that he recognised as Arack architecture. He'd never been so happy to see the Empire, for it meant that he was definitely home. How deceptively simple it was to slide back home, just a matter of mental exertion. If he had known this the last time he had been stranded in the antiverse it would have made things a lot easier.  
Thunder cracked in the sky and it began to rain.

XI

It seemed that Cinos had planned his escape from the dark dimension with a degree of shrewdness. Though Chagrin Las Mortis existed parallel to the equally hostile (or arguably moreso) Arack city of Terantulopolis, Hawke's Manse stood parallel to an unpatrolled patch of landfill backing onto the Great Forest. He probably supposed that, should anybody try to follow him, they would slide right into the clutches of the Empire. A kind of interdimensional booby-trap that would ensure he wasn't followed.  
As the rain fell upon the stinking refuse of the spider city, Sonic perceived footprints travelling to the east. Not spider prints, but two sets of feet that seemed to have materialised from nowhere and trampled through the mud and away. But Sonic knew where those feet had come from.  
His first instinct was to return to New Knothole and alert the Freedom Fighters as to the trouble afoot, but he realised that wasn't a good plan. His only clue as to where on Mobius his evil twin was headed were these footprints, very soon to be washed away by the rain. The dark hedgehog and his crazy companion could not be far ahead, but he would lose them if he lingered.  
"I'll contact Sally from the road," he decided, and hoped she would understand. If she didn't, it would only be because she hadn't experienced the strangeness of his day.  
Sonic looked down at his hands and saw a strange thing. He had taken the metal handcuff on his left hand with him when he slid out of Hawke's Manse, but the right one had stayed in the antiverse. Two and a half links of chain were still attached to the cuff - the half-link severed through the centre as though sliced off with a clean cut. He didn't understand how sliding worked, but counted himself lucky that the dimensional tissue hadn't cut across his neck just as it had across the chain. Some things were beyond understanding, he decided. Some things just were.  
Sonic the Hedgehog wandered into the Great Forest to persue his evil twin, and none of his friends heard from or about him again in over a year. Those who he knew only in passing considered his death after about a month of his absence, but his closest friends lingered onto hope for much longer before they, too, conceded that the hedgehog was gone from the world forever. In that way, most people had already decided that Sonic's adventure was over, before it even truly began.

The story of Sonic's travels in the next year would come to be legend.

---

RASPUTAN:  
The First Interlude

I've travelled the world from sea to sea and seen remarkable things,  
The falls of empires, the rise of mountains, the legacies of kings,  
But never again in all my life have I been able to find,  
A being so insane with life, with such a twisted mind.

So mad was he, so crooked, he lived solely for himself,  
In persuit of power, and in persuit of wealth,  
He had no friends, not a single one, for he betrayed them all,  
And not a single reason had he to justify his fall.

I met him on my travels once, a creature full of greed,  
His mind twisted with insanity, a grisly sight indeed,  
He would stab you in the back to steal your pouch of gold,  
Not a trace of emotion, his heart was frozen cold.

I asked him, "What was done to you to twist you all around"  
He said, "Life's pleasures are a thing to treasure, I have found.  
But happiness is fleeting, something to fight battles for,  
And the devil's bargain of this mirth is always wanting more."

I said, "But Twisted Mind, is not happiness from within?  
Does not the outward search for such a thing, become the biggest sin"  
He replied, "Nothing convinces me that this theory is sound,  
For as long as more is out there, there is more to be found."

I've travelled this globe all over, oh the lessons I have learned,  
The cultures I have visited, great empires overturned,  
But what a lesson I have learned from one without sympathy for his fellows,  
Who was content to seek his fortune and to always be so shallow.


	2. Two: Colours of Worship

AWAKENING  
S Peter Davis 

All characters (C) SEGA, Archie and SP Davis 2004 (unless otherwise noted.  
Used without permission To contact the author

* * *

Two:  
Colours of Worship

* * *

I've been through the desert on a horse with no name,  
It felt good to be out of the rain.  
In the desert, you can't remember your name,  
'Cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain.

- America

It's getting so creepy, just nursing this ghost of a chance,  
The fiction, the romance and the technicolour dreams Of black-and-white people.

- Matchbox Twenty

* * *

INTERDEPENDENCE

I

The colours whirled. Every colour of the spectrum. But only in Sonic's head.  
Sonic, the weak, parched shadow of his former self, was reduced to crawling along the desert floor. He'd dropped his empty water bottle behind the large dune which now made up part of the horizon, and his tongue extended its full length past his gums, as dry as the sand he was crawling on. The first kilometre without water, he was kicking himself for misjudging the size of the desert, and for assuming that Cinos isurely/i wasn't going to trek into it's heart, that he'd travel into a town or off the side to a scrub forest or an oasis. The second kilometre without water, he noticed he was no longer sweating, that the sun had squeezed the last remenants of loose water from his pores. It was about then that Sonic had begun to get delirious.. thinking about the strangest things, such as 'wouldn't it be funny if the cacti could talk' or 'I wonder what the world would be like if the sky was green and the plants were blue'. This was bad enough, but now he was on his third kilometre without water, and the sky iwas/i green, and the plants iwere/i blue, and the cacti were singing "It's a Small World After All" while the spinifex shrubs held a tea party.  
At least, they were to Sonic.  
So now he was crawling, and the obvious threat of death never even crossed his mind. All he knew was that he needed to stop and maybe take a little nap while he composed himself. So, in his parched state, he did. And he fell asleep the instant he stopped moving his limbs.

II

(Out walking in the frozen swamp one grey day I paused and said, "I will turn back from here.")

Two months he had trekked the sometimes harsh rural landscape of Westerica, and the journey had shown him just how little civilisation had truly touched the continent. The wide green forever was sliced through by the occasional highway or train track, and many of these roads were still unsealed from lack of use. Sonic's journey had taken him northeast through the fertile crescent of Westerica's tropical lands, first through the Great Forest and several villages that made the forest their home (many of them were very adverse to city life and didn't get along with Sonic much at all, which only made his journey more difficult), and then into a city on the other side of the forest called Point Adrien. He had never heard of it before, and in fact realised that he had never seen the northern side of the Great Forest before. The forest was so deep and so dark that it had been difficult to picture it even having another side. The feeling of journeying through the ocean of trees until he stumbled upon a foreign civilisation was a sobering one - he had been so grounded ever since the fall of Mobitropolis that the Great Forest may as well have been the edge of Mobius; he felt as though he had built a rocketship, flown to another planet and discovered an alien city. And though he knew that he shouldn't be enjoying this vacation (if Freedom Fighting was his job, then surely this constituted a business trip) he couldn't help wishing that he had taken a camera so he could have shown the pictures to Tails when he returned.  
At this point he didn't have a clue just how long that would be.

("No, I will go on farther--and we shall see.")

Cinos had spent three days in Point Adrien and then moved north again, so Sonic had done the same. There were no cities north of the Point. The Plains of Mirth stretched from one horizon to the other like a green ocean. Sometime in the middle of October, Sonic had realised that he had probably missed Tails' birthday, though he wasn't in a position to contact his friend because there were no phones or mail service here. The days began to blend together and melt into one heterogenous lump of sunlight and darkness. Sonic began to realise just to what degree the idea of civilisation being the norm for mobiankind was a flawed concept. Here, in the wilderness, there was no time, no government, no technology. The small-town mobians were more like tribes than true towns, and though they spoke Sonic's language, each had their own dialect. There was housing, but no electricity or running water. Most grew their own food to nourish their extended family, and lived from one day to the next never knowing of the events of the world. Sonic wondered how many of them knew Mobitropolis had fallen. He wondered how many of them knew what Mobitropolis was.

(The view was all in straight up and down of tall slim trees, too much alike to mark or name a place by)

He lived off the hospitality of the plain-dwelling folk for about twenty days before he reached a point where there were no more folk. Every so often he would encounter hostility in a tribe - it shocked him the first few times it happened, but he soon realised why. Cinos and his guide Rasputan were pillaging to stay alive, cutting a path of havoc and notoriety through the Plains, and Sonic was riding the wake of vengeance. Once he was chased for a good twenty minutes by a young farmer with a shotgun who claimed that Sonic had killed his father, and who swore that Sonic's corpse was going to be hanging in his field as a scarecrow by sundown. Sonic was unfortunate in the way that he shared the physical likeness of his antiverse twin, but fortunate in the way that he also shared the speed. It pained him that Cinos was ripping families apart as he tore through Westerica's rural country like a natural disaster, and wished that there was some way he could make it better. But at the end of the day, the only thing that he could truly do was keep moving.

(So as to say for certain I was here or somewhere else)

But he grew concerned when the ocean of green began to turn into an ocean of brown and Cinos continued moving north into the thick of it. Where could the dark hedgehog be going through the wastes of the Barren Quarter where no mobian made their home? It was then that Sonic made his biggest error in deciding to continue to follow Cinos, that there must be something here that he didn't know about, some final destination or simple path of which his evil twin had some prior knowledge. It was this decision that left Sonic, two months after he left the safety of his homeland and thousands of kilometres from home, dying in the hostile nothingness of the Crux Desert and pleading for his end to be swift and painless.  
But the end never came.

(I was just far from home)

III

It was impossible to tell how long Sonic had been unconscious. It was anywhere between five minutes and a day, but he came to upon the sound of talking.  
Was this a mirage? The lunacy of a dehydrated mind? At this point it was hard to tell. The voices were speaking in some bizarre language that Sonic could not recognise. He opened his eyes a crack, and saw many pairs of purple feet. Very purple, very scaly feet. He tried to look higher, but couldn't.  
As the purple people chattered away, Sonic caught a single phrase spoken in his own tongue that was nevertheless meaningless to him.  
"...the Great Shade be very pleased with us"  
The hedgehog was then grabbed by the arm and yanked up onto his feet. He howled weakly in pain as his badly sunburned arm was touched. But the pain fell away when something was shoved in his mouth. A bowl of water. The instant his tongue was bathed and reverted to its moist self, Sonic's muscles remarkably began to work again. He grabbed the large bowl with some force and chugged down as much of the fluid as he could, making loud gulping noises with each swallow. Somebody grabbed the bowl back from him, spilling some water onto his feet, and he was shoved from behind to start walking.  
He was able to get a good look at them, now. All of them were shorter than he was, but they carried very pointy spears. They looked like a race of pygmies. They were reptilian, though of a race Sonic had never seen before. Bright violet scales and yellow horns on each forehead. And their tails stuck up into the air and curled into a spiral at the end.  
One of them was staring at him as they walked, and it seemed to be a child, a young male. Sonic looked at him, and he looked at Sonic... and then the lizard's skin changed colour. It changed from purple to blue - the same colour blue as Sonic's own spines. Sonic gasped and stumbled. One of the lizards wrenched him back to normal walking position, and another one poked the young lizard with his spear and gave a harsh sounding reprimand.  
"That's a neat trick," Sonic announced. He got a sharp jab with a spear in reply.  
He detested being pushed around like that, and their spears didn't really seem all that threatening to him. Only thing was that they had probably the only water he'd find for miles. He could escape them easily, but then what? Where would he go and what would he do? Sonic retained some hope that he would be brought to some kind of authority figure who could be reasoned with. Until then, he would have to suffer the jabs and hostility. After all, the lizards had saved his life, so clearly they didn't want him dead, right? Sonic's power of logic never was all that impressive.  
They walked for half an hour before they came to any kind of landmark. It was the base of a mountainous cliff, and there was a cave in it. A very wide cave indeed. An eerie orange light emenated from within.  
"Want me to go inside there?" Sonic asked. "Hey, no can do, dudes. I'm scared of the dark, and I can't sleep in strange places. Thanks though"  
Nobody replied, but somebody started tying something around his head. A blindfold, made out of some kind of leaf. Another lizard grabbed his hands and held them behind his back, and pushed him to keep walking.  
"Hey, pushy little fellers, aren't you," he commented.  
The next fifteen minutes of travel consisted of descending and ascending and turning corners in the complete darkness of Sonic's blindfold. And it was very difficult. But he could tell from the voices and the noise throughout the cave that there were hundreds, perhaps thousands of the lizards living there.  
The journey ended when Sonic was given a violent shove, and he tumbled down some kind of slope and landed on rock. There was the sound of a door closing.  
Sonic, hands now free, ripped the leaf off his head and checked out his surroundings.  
Firstly, the cave was very, very big. It must have been a long way underneath the desert, because it was also very hot. But a different kind of heat to the aboveground - the desert itself was scorching, piercing, frying heat, and Sonic's arms, mouth and belly were tender and red, and would probably start to peel skin in great gruesome chunks before the week's end. This place was a humid heat that made Sonic break out in an uncontrollable sweat almost immediately. Another major difference was that, down here, the source of the heat was down, not up. It was coming from Mobius, not the sun.  
Also, it was being used, it seemed, by an enormous colony of the purple lizards, as their home and place of worship. Several different rituals were going on at once, down below. There were lots of smaller caves within this large one, and most of them were labelled, but in a language that Sonic had never seen before. Some of the lizards were dressed elaboratly in white and black, despite the heat, signifying that they were probably quite important, and some even had followings of the normal, peasant lizards who were as naked as God (or The Great Shade?) had made them.  
But there was something funny about this settlement, and Sonic couldn't quite put his finger on it at first. It looked wrong, somehow. It was drab and primitive, and looked almost animalistic despite the clear use of simple technologies. What was it about these people that made them seem so unmobian? Finally he put his finger on it. Even the most primitive mobian civilisations had some form of art, adorned their colonies with decorations and pictures. But this was different. Sonic looked around the brown caves and brown buildings and brown clothing and saw not a single sign of embellishment in the entire place. There was no colour. No colour at all.  
It was quite a spectacle, and an interesting place to be. Sonic folded his arms behind his head and wondered just how the heck he was going to get out of it.  
The only way out of the small dungeon cell was the way he had come. All other directions led to an immediate thousand-foot-fall onto the mixture of hard stones and bonfires on the ground below. Trying to imagine which of these would constitute a more painful death made Sonic cringe, so he didn't.  
The direction he had come was a steep slope which led upward. It was a large gradiant, but Sonic thought he could run up it with little trouble, it didn't go very far. Unfortunately, however, the top of the slope was guarded. Quite heavily guarded. And if he got past that, he would still have to make it past thousands of other lizards, while all the time climbing steep inclines to the surface. That much he had learned by using his senses during his blind journey from the desert to the cage.  
The biggest question was whether the desert really was a better option than this. To be honest, he couldn't decide.  
Sonic couldn't remember how many times along this chain of thought he slipped into sleep. Some of those times he didn't even realise.

IV

Sonic's fatigued body was wracked with the strangest dreams, and sometimes he wasn't exactly sure whether he was dreaming or not. More than once he had been staring at the bars of his cage and seen Cinos wander out of the shadows, grinning in the way he always did, looking like a parody of Sonic's own grin but with a twisted edge to it, the grin of a homicidal lunatic. But he wasn't a lunatic, Sonic feared, and that was the most dangerous thing about him. He had Sonic's mind, complete with the virtue of sanity, and the implication that Sonic didn't really want to consider was that Cinos was right about the powers of these runed stones and their links to the power of the Old Ways.  
Every time he saw Cinos outside his prison, the dark hedgehog had wavered and vanished, nothing more than the illusion of a tired mind. At one point he had been dressed in the robes of Father Thaldymort, and had been holding the priest's rosary, although the holy symbol on the sacred item had changed from the object of Thaldymort's faith to the object of Cinos' - something like a capital letter 'M', but not quite. Something, some living thing, was squirming around inside those robes, and for a moment it poked up from the hedgehog's collar, only briefly. Something long and skinny like a thin white tentacle.  
"You will have four Awakenings before your quest is complete. The early hedgehog catches the wyrm, Sonic," the dream-Cinos had whispered, and Sonic knew (in the way that you simply iknow/i things about the world of your dreams) that his twin had said 'wyrm' and not 'worm', though they were pronounced exactly the same. Then Cinos grinned more devilishly than Sonic had ever thought possible, and perhaps it wasn't possible in reality at all, and leaned in. He lifted one hand and offered Sonic a juicy red apple, then screamed "iWake up blue animal/i"  
Sonic shot up. It hadn't been Cinos screaming at him at all, but rather one of the strange purple lizards. The hedgehog squinted, a little alarmed, until his vision adjusted and he remembered where he was.  
"Time for eat," the lizard announced. It shoved something through the bars - not an apple, but the leg of some poor bird of unidentifiable species. Its talons were still attached, twisted in a bizarre angle, but it was cooked and it was greasy and it was food. And Sonic was starving. He stumbled across the room and grabbed the drumstick. It was the same size as an ordinary chicken leg, but its claws were too long and sharp to belong to anything short of a carnivore, and there was something oddly just about eating a carnivore. Sonic didn't care about justice at the moment, he gulped the meat down in two bites without chewing and began to suck on the bone while the lizard watched. They stared at each other intently.  
"That's it?" Sonic prompted. "That was 'time for eat"  
The lizard turned away and began to walk off. Sonic bolted to the side of the cage and grabbed onto the bars.  
"iCome back/i" he yelled, "iI've only just begun to salivate! I haven't had a decent meal since I left home! How long before you feed me again, huh? You can't keep me here! You can't lock me up and you can't keep me here/i"  
The lizard walked out of sight.  
Sonic stormed across the cell and kicked the bars as hard as he could. While he had been fairly cool about the whole affair, he was now angrier than he had been in a very long time. He was famished, he was hopelessly thirsty and couldn't stop sweating which made him even more parched, and Cinos was probably over the hills and far away by now, with a sack full of Armageddon Rocks and a wide grin on his strangely handsome face.  
Sonic looked down at the floor of the cave below. What did these savages intend to do with him? Feed him to their god? Torture him with hot pokers? He gritted his teeth, and when he heard a loud crunching sound he remembered that he was still sucking on the drumstick. He pulled the jagged end of the leg out of his mouth and spat the sharp bone fragments out of his mouth onto the floor. Then he chucked the remains through the bars and hoped they hit some poor lizard on the head. He supposed they would see it as a sign from the Great Shade.

V

The lizards in this hole probably had no concept of night and day, Sonic realised. The sunlight did not have the power to navigate the labyrinthine corridors that led into the main caverns, and the only light within was provided by bonfires that never went out. It didn't take long before the tedium of just being in this place began to tighten like a vise on Sonic's sanity. He had never been so bored in his entire life. This coupled with an unbearable hunger, aching thirst, no sense of time whatsoever and nothing to look at but brown, turned monotony into literal torture. He walked in circles just for something to do, tried to remember the lyrics of songs, had conversations with himself, all the while remaining wary of the topic. Sane people, he told himself, have conversations with themselves. Lunatics have arguments.  
Sonic drifted in and out of microsleeps continually whenever he was relaxed, always waking up with a jolt moments later thinking "Oh no I've got to get out of here and save the universe", then realising the impossibility of this task, especially in his current weakened state, and drifting off again. But something was happening in the pits below. Bonfires were being lit in circles, and the lizards were beginning to dance bizarre dances and get a lot more social.  
"What are they doing down there?" he asked any of the nonexistant companions that he had created to keep him company. None of them replied, because they were all products of Sonic's imagination and, uselessly, couldn't tell him anything that he didn't already know. Imaginary friends were a real drag.  
"Dinner time!" somebody announced, and Sonic shrieked aloud and leaped into a defensive position. There was another of the strange lizards outside his cage, and he was holding another greasy drumstick, but there was something different about this individual. The difference being that he iwas/i an individual. All of the desert lizards appeared to be carbon copies of each other, and Sonic had found it impossible to tell one from another. This one was different. He had expression on his face. Sonic couldn't help but notice this, but he was too hungry to care.  
"You've brought his other leg I see," he grunted. He crawled over and snatched it greedily. "How about some water, huh? Would that be acceptable, or am I asking way too much, here"  
The lizard stepped back nervously and shook his head. "Uh... sorry"  
Sonic grunted as he tore the last of the meat off the mangled leg and threw it to the ground like a wild animal. He stormed over to the bars where the lizard stood and grabbed onto them, scowling.  
"You can't keep me in here for long on this," he said. "I don't know how much you guys eat, but I'll die before long if I don't get some water and some real food. I've walked further in this last week than you have in your entire life, hornface, and I need food and I need water. You hear me"  
"Living isn't on the agenda for you I'm afraid," the lizard said with a shrug, "You've stumbled into the Pit of the Chameleon Cabal. It's a bad move. The plan is to feed you just enough so that you're alive for the Cleansing Ceremony tomorrow morning"  
"And what happens at the Cleansing Ceremony"  
"You get cooked until you're as brown as everything else"  
"Oh, so that's your custom?" Sonic demanded. "Snatching people out of the desert and killing them"  
"It's your quills," the lizard replied, "It's a pity you're so blue, buddy. The Cabal has a policy about exotic colours, they all get sacrificed for the glory of the Great Shade. It doesn't matter if they happen to be part of a living, breathing person. That's just the chameleon way"  
"What did you say you are? Chameleons"  
The lizard nodded and reached out to touch one of the bars of Sonic's cage. The scales on his hand and forearm changed almost instantly from their original purple to the rusty brown colour of the metal bar. The illusion was magnificent. Sonic forgot his anger a little and reached out to touch the lizard's arm with his own hand. The scales around the area of contact faded into the dirty white of Sonic's glove.  
"The Great Shade is the supposed creator of the universe and every colour in it," the lizard said in a mocking tone that struck Sonic as distinctly strange, "We don't get to see a lot of colour out here in the desert. It's shades of brown as far as the eye can see. When a colour does appear, the clerics immediately have it snatched up to sacrifice it to the glory of the Great Shade"  
"You don't sound like you believe it," Sonic pointed out. He had also noticed that this particular lizard, this chameleon, spoke his language fluently albeit with an accent that made him occasionally difficult to understand. The others had a feeble grip on the dialect at best.  
"Heck no. I'm an atheist. I don't think there's any Great Shade, just a lot of light reflecting off stuff and hitting our eyes a certain way. I study a lot, you see. The others hate me, I'm just a heretic to them, and they have me doing all the jobs that nobody else wants to do. Cleaning the toilets, washing the dishes, feeding the sacrifices, you know, that kind of stuff"  
"Listen to me," Sonic pleaded, "What's your name"  
"Espio"  
"Listen, Espio. You've gotta help me. You're probably the only one here who can. Just let me get outta here, let me get back to the desert, I'll be on my way and I'll never show my bright blue hide around here again, okay"  
Espio looked uncomfortable. "I don't think I can," he said, "That's uh, that's the kind of thing that'd get me killed around here. Look, don't take this personally, you're a nice guy and all, but, uh... sorry"  
He began to walk away.  
"No! Come back!" Sonic shouted. "Come back! Let me out of here! Come baaaaaack"  
Somebody came back towards him - not Espio, but one of the guards protecting the entrance to the hall.  
"Shut up you!" the guard warned.  
Sonic scowled at him and shrank back. He couldn't stay there any longer, he had to get out of there, one way or another.

VI

One side of Sonic's cage was under a thick layer of reddy-brown dirt. Sonic had discovered this while he was passing the time, drawing little pictures in the ground with his index finger and then rubbing them out. Fifteen minutes of this activity turned his dirty off-white glove quite red. The hedgehog inspected the glove, and tried to rub the dirt off it with his other hand. No success - it was stained.  
"This is the dirtiest dirt I've ever seen," he commented to himself. "Roll around in this for a while and this cult of killer chameleons probably wouldn't even want me"  
He lingered on this for a while. Did he seriously think they would let him go if he just replaced his brilliant blue for ordinary dirt? It was crazy, it was insane, but it was a plan. It wasn't a plan worthy of placement in a spy movie, but it was a plan, his only plan, and at that moment he decided that beggers couldn't be choosers and perhaps it was better to get to work instead of thinking about it so much.  
He lay down in the dirt and started rolling about as though he had a particularly irritating itch somewhere he couldn't reach. Sonic had been unfortunate enough to be imprisoned a number of times in his life, but of all the escape plans he had concocted, this was probably the strangest. iThis is the dumbest thing anyone's ever done/i, he thought. Just dumb enough to work? iLet's just hope./i Sonic had to wail for quite a while before two chameleon guards came to investigate, and they probably only intended to knock him unconscious or gag him or something. Their faces contorted in shock when they saw him, and Sonic thought that their entire bodies shifted to a redder hue.  
Sonic was lying on his back, still yelling out incomprehensible garbage, and the only blue that was showing on his entire body was dull and in small patches. He was now mostly dirt-brown.  
"What wrong with you is?" one of the chameleons demanded, "You mental sick? Problem with head"  
"I'm isiiiick/i" Sonic exclaimed. "I'm idyyying/i I need food and fresh air to restore my complexion"  
"Get him up," the guard demanded. The other chameleon opened the door to the cage, and as soon as he saw that it was unlocked, Sonic's first instinct was to charge the door and pound it open like a battering ram. His ambition was more than his body could handle, for his fatigued and undernourished muscles could barely put him on his feet, let alone show these lizards why they called him the blue blur. He'd never moved so slowly in all the time that he could remember, and a severe sensation of embarrassment flooded through him. The blue blur had transformed into the brown clod.  
The chameleon guards caught hold of him and dragged him to his feet, forcing him to leave the cage in his custody, and he figured that at the very least they were going to take him to a doctor or something and there would be more opportunities for escape later on. No such luck, as it turned out. The chameleons dragged him past what appeared to be a series of sacred chambers (In each one, several lizards kneeled side-by side, rocking back and forth quickly with their eyes closed and their colours darkened) until they came to an antechamber at the end of the hall, a tiny synagogue beautifully decorated with stones and crystals of every colour of the rainbow. Sonic noticed that the room wasn't just tiled with natural objects - cemented into the walls were bottlecaps, machine parts and discarded garbage. Everything coloured that they found but didn't consider significant enough to sacrifice probably found its way into this chamber. In this bland brown colony, it looked like a bowerbird's nest.  
In the centre of the room was a deep pool that was probably part of a natural hotspring. It was into this pool that Sonic was violently tossed.  
The hedgehog spluttered and tried to scramble out, but the chameleons held him down. Sonic could see now that more of the lizards had entered the chamber, and were staring down at him with their fingers knitted together and morbid, serious expressions on their reptillian faces. They were wearing long brown hooded robes that looked as though they were made of hessian, like monks in potato sacks. They did not move but to blink.  
"Cleanse you," one of the guards said, scrubbing at Sonic's arms, "Make you clean, washing you holy spring now"  
"Washing me or basting me?" Sonic asked, "You know, you're not going to get away with snatching people out of the desert and murdering them"  
"Not murder," the lizard insisted, "Ascension"  
"Oh right, I forgot. You're doing me a favour by frying me today"  
"It is a boon"  
"Thanks, I'm honoured"  
After restoring Sonic's vibrancy (his spines were now even bluer than they had been when the chameleons caught him), they did not drag him back to his old cage but to a new one, a bigger prison that was suspended by a system of ropes. It looked a little like a cable car. They threw him inside and locked the door, and he shouted with frustration and futility until they went away.  
So much for escape.

VII

It was perhaps an hour later, and Sonic was asleep when the chameleons returned. In the glugginess of sleep, he barely registered the sounds of a struggle and of the cage door being opened, closed and locked. He came out of his trance and opened his eyes.  
All he saw was the clenched fist a nanosecond before it pummeled him in the centre of his face.  
Sonic twisted, fell over and belatedly screamed out a swear word as he clutched his bleeding nose.  
Cinos stood with him in the cage, scowling and giving his twin a look so acidic it could kill grass.  
"That felt good," he said.  
Sonic glared for a moment, but then as realisation hit he began to chuckle.  
"You got caught too"  
"A minor setback," Cinos replied. His eyes narrowed further, but then he grinned. "So," he said, "Look who actually learned how to slide"  
"Piece of cake," Sonic said. He straightened up and sniffled, his nose dripping blood but unbroken. "If you have it in you, then I have it in me, right? Isn't that what you've been trying to tell me all along"  
"You're smart as a whip, my brother," Cinos said.  
"And speaking of which," Sonic added, "If you're so good at it, why don't you just slide into the antiverse right now and get out of this cage? Got performance anxiety"  
"You're new to this whole thing, so I'll give you a tip. You only skip over the fence when you know what's on the other side. If these caverns don't exist in the antiverse, you've got trouble. I'd much rather be here than manifest myself into solid rock, you bet your sweet blue fur"  
"So you're just as helpless as I am. How does it feel to be a loser"  
"Oh, I wouldn't say that," Cinos snarled, and he gripped the bars of the cage and stared out into the caverns beyond. "I'll be out of here in no time, and I might even stick around to watch them cook you. It serves you right for following me, sticking your nose where it doesn't belong"  
"If you get out, then I get out," Sonic replied, "Didn't we just conclude that there's nothing you can do that I can't"  
"Very true, brother. But there's one difference. I'm willing to kill as many of these people as is necessary to get out of this can. I can't say the same for you"  
Sonic opened his mouth to reply, but there was no rebutting clear logic. If bloodshed was the only way to get out of this mess, then without a doubt, Cinos held the cards.  
Time went by. The chameleons were creatures of patience, it seemed, and although Sonic was loathe to admit it, a part of him was quite glad to finally have some company. Months of wandering the continent alone had a way of doing something to him, made him yearn for a familiar face, even if it did belong to his murderous twin.  
"So, interesting story I heard back in Chagrin Las Mortis," he said, "There's a priest there who seems to think you're messing with some pretty dangerous powers. You've always been a pest, but I didn't think world domination was your style"  
"I couldn't care less about ruling the world, Sonic," Cinos replied darkly, "You know as well as I do that I'm not interested in that kind of responsibility. God was a little misguided, you see. All He wanted to do was create. He invested all that energy into creating. What a waste. The power to destroy is the only power that matters. I'm sure you can relate"  
"No way," Sonic replied.  
"Oh, sure, you're into all that usual heroic tripe. Truth, freedom, justice. I know how your mind works, after all, we share the same past, the same memories. Don't you ever forget that, Sonic. I dreamed of snakes, too. We were brought into this world hard, dear brother, born of a lot of pain and suffering. You think you don't want what happened to you to happen to anybody else, but I'm more realistic. I want my pain to be inflicted on others. I want no-one to escape." He turned to Sonic, and there was a strange grin on his face, a frightening grin. "Do you remember when they used to tell you that you were useless? That you were nothing? Don't you want to prove them wrong once and for all"  
"Not like this," Sonic said, "Not like this"  
"Oh, I think if you searched your feelings deep enough you might just frighten yourself. That's the beauty of being you. I know things about you that you'll never admit"  
"We're not so alike, Cinos. You're a gullible idiot, believing that you're going to destroy the universe with a bunch of old rocks. That's the kind of fairy tale I stopped believing before I could talk"  
"Oh really?" Cinos laughed, "That's interesting! Why did you drop everything to follow me here? Just bored, I suppose? You could have died in that desert. Seems strange that you'd give your life for a fairy tale"  
Again, Sonic didn't have a response. He was spared this embarrassment by a sudden movement in the ropes that attached to the top of their cage. There were a lot of loud voices coming from the dark of the chameleon catacombs, and the ropes were pulling them, now, destination unknown. From the sound of those voices, something exciting was happening, but Sonic didn't feel much like celebrating.  
"I think it's time for us to die," Cinos said.  
Sonic just rattled the bars uselessly as their hanging prison was slowly winched into the darkness.

VIII

There was more contributing to the chameleons' joy this day than the celebration of two colourful gifts from heaven about to be burned in the name of the Great Shade. The word echoed throughout the caves like a voice from above. These were the Final Times, this word said. The beginning of the end. Soon, the Great Shade would descend from His heavenly throne by way of a rainbow, would return to Mobius and drain it of colour as though sucking the juice from an orange. He would spit out the nonbelievers, the unworthy, the sinners and the unredeemable, and leave them in a black-and-white purgatory of a toneless, achromatic world. The rest would be taken to the kaleidoscopic heaven of the Saved, to bask in the glory of His colour for an eternity.  
They knew this, because, as promised since time immeasurable, the Prophet had come. Empowered with the ability to perform miracles, to control the colours of the world through the power of the Great Shade, the Prophet of the Shade had arrived to inform his followers of the future. When asked about the coming times, the Prophet had smiled and announced that the world was about to end.  
The Cathedral of the Shade was the holiest chamber in the Pit of the Chameleon Cabal. For hundreds of years the chameleons collected the coloured objects that decorated the walls of the cathedral, the residue of Westerica's technological and artistic legacy. An outsider might descend into the dark caves of the Cabal and find what they perceive to be a giant hole lined with scrap, and they may even guess that the ones who lived here used this room as their garbage dump. It would be a hundred and eighty degrees from the truth, for the useless debris that lined these walls were the most sacred of things, and their holiness could only be contained within the most sacred of places.  
Here, the Prophet sat upon a throne that had been made for him by his followers, not the most beautiful (or comfortable) chair ever to grace Mobius but certainly the most elaborate piece of furniture to created by the Chameleon Cabal. The Prophet sat in his robes and watched the sacrificial inferno blaze in the centre of the cathedral, soon to be stoked with the kindling of the brightly pigmented outsiders. Above the fire, bathed in the glow of its orange flames, was a massive brown statue cut into the rock wall. The statue of a chameleon, leaping out from the wall in a frozen spear-dive, both arms thrust out ahead. These hands were clasped around an object, thrusting it toward the observer, not like an offering so much as an imposition. This object was the focal point of the entire cathedral, the centrepiece, the accretion of all-importance. A small stone, deceptively ordinary, like every other rock under the sand and soil of the Barren Quarter. Except that this stone was flat and smooth, and it was emblazoned with a symbol, a simple design carved into it like a marker. An ordinary lexicon, but one that for some reason hurt the head to look at. Perhaps because it's meaning was too complex to fit comfortably inside the sane mind.  
Chameleons dressed in the robes of the priesthood flanked the Prophet and prayed to the Great Shade. Others, naked, worked the machines that winched a series of ropes high above the inferno. The sound of chanting and worship hit a crescendo when the sacrificial cage came into sight and moved slowly toward the blazing fire. The Great Shade would be pleased, and nobody who believed in His grace would need to fear the end times.

IX

"They're going to put us right over that fire," Sonic lamented. "They'll cook us like chicken schnitzels, all 'cause we're too blue. You know, there are some things about this world that make it difficult to figure out why I want to save it"  
"There you go, Sonic," Cinos replied with a grin, "There's that good old cynicism rising to the surface at long last. Hold onto that, brother, it's the last thing to go. Soon you'll be begging me to end this world. We might even join together, side by side, the way it's always supposed to have been. What do you say"  
"Sure. When the Cabal freezes over and chameleons fly. What are you smiling about, spinebag"  
His twin's tooth-filled grin widened, like a crocodile sighting it's prey. "I know something you don't know," he sang.  
"I'll bet," Sonic replied. "What is it? The length of a piece of string? The number of angels that can dance on the head of a chameleon"  
"Actually it's the number of runes no longer lost to the ages, oh my brother, and the answer is right over there"  
He grabbed a handful of the spines that sprouted from the back of Sonic's head, and jerked them to the right, forcing Sonic, with a yelp of pain, to turn his head to the left. Like that the two hedgehogs stood and gazed out together into the Cathedral of the Shade. The immediate focus for them both was the giant lizard statue carved out of the stone wall, its arms thrust out ahead of it and victoriously clutching something so small that it was difficult to see. Sonic squinted to try and make it out.  
"The Rune of Nothagodos," Cinos whispered in awe, as though the name meant something to Sonic, but it didn't. It didn't even ring a bell.  
"Is that thing supposed to impress me?" he asked.  
"It should," his dark twin replied, "It impresses me a lot, being that such a small and simple thing contains one fifth of the energy keeping two realities from colliding like worlds in a shrinking orbit"  
Sparks of static electricity were snap-crackle-popping like wet cereal at the point where Cinos was grasping Sonic's spines, but neither hedgehog was too concerned until Cinos reached around to put an arm around Sonic's shoulders (a brotherly gesture that seemed too comfortable, and Sonic was terrified by the idea that some innate bond between them was continually trying to bring them together as kinbound siblings despite their inexorable enmity). A loud crack ripped through the air as soon as they touched, and a dart of pain made Sonic flinch and shove the other hedgehog away. "Don't touch me," he growled. His shoulder stung in the place where his body had made contact with that of his otherworldly eqivalent. Whatever glitched physics made Cinos what he was, still made it impossible for the hedgehogs to touch without a painful electrical discharge ripping between them. Cinos also tendered his stung hand, but continued to gaze out at the stone at the peak of the statue.  
"It's fascinating how these people have grown so fanatical living down here with the Rune," he said, "Through the years its power has been filling these caverns like a poisonous gas, but poisonous for the mind. It's influenced their religion, like the presence of a something radioactive will mutate the environment. The Rune has mutated their minds"  
"Insightful," Sonic replied.  
"It works just the way it's supposed to. Do you believe my fairy tale yet, Sonic"  
"All I believe is that some whacked out cult of technicolour lizard people is about to roast us for our fashion sense if we don't do something soon"  
The cage began to heat up amidst the growing excitement of the lizard Cabal.

X

Time slithered past like a fat and gluttonous serpent, achingly sluggish and laggard, the slow-devourer of Sonic's well cherished sanity. The heat was growing, and he knew it would continue doing so until the hedgehogs were both toast. And yet he watched his evil twin from across the cage (he didn't want to get too close in case he got zapped by the electric reaction between himself and his other... or worse, be taken in by the insane urge to be even closer to Cinos and forget his animosity). Cinos, the reflection of his own mind and soul, was using the wits for which he had been notorious in the world where he went by the name of Kinnos Sharpe. The wits for which Sonic himself was notorious in his own world. He could see the dark hedgehog staring out into the caverns, looking one way and the other, focused, always thinking. Sonic the Hedgehog had never been accused of brilliance, but speed of body required speed of thought. That was one thing he had learned from his short time with Kethriel, a mentor he had known a while ago. Whatever he did think, he thought it quickly. And of course, everything he had learned, every skill he possessed, he passed on to Cinos upon his creation.  
What he feared was that his dark twin would soon come up with a way to escape the cage, and when that happened, he would use the opportunity to consign Sonic to his fiery fate while he made off with his life and his Rune. Sonic knew that he would have to escape first, and so their entrapment became a kind of mind-race, a battle of wits. Sonic had to slow down his twin, so he did it the only way he knew how. He attacked the ego he knew Cinos had (because he possessed it himself) by drowning it in questions.  
"So how did you get the psycho eating out of your hand?" he asked, "And where is he now"  
"What?" Cinos mumbled, clearly irritated by the distraction.  
"That porcupine," Sonic clarified, "That lunatic"  
"Rasputan is a moron," the other replied, "I bought his services the same way you buy anything from a moron. By giving him crap he doesn't need. What's normal to us amazes him. He's so addicted to modern comforts that he's as loyal as a dumb puppy, he'll be waiting at the front door for me no matter how long I'm stuck down here. He's also a big fan of the Prophecy"  
"The Prophecy"  
Cinos grinned. "That a leader draped in blue will inherit the world"  
Sonic frowned and looked again at the rock that Cinos had called the Rune of Nothagodos. The symbol on the flat face of the stone, like a letter 'G' drawn without curves, burned his mind with its simplicity and the power of its connotations. His head ached from the heat, but it ached more when he looked at that symbol.  
"Why does it make my head hurt?" he asked.  
Cinos shrugged. "It's probably doing the same thing to your mind as it's doing to theirs." He pointed to the crowd of praying, celebrating chameleons.  
But that was preposterous, Sonic thought. He wasn't taken with a desire to burn things and pray to a colour-god. But yet, he did feel isomething/i, when his guard was down and his mind was at its most vulnerable. A feeling like some otherworldly broadcast that he couldn't hear or interpret was being transmitted into the core of his brain. He felt no compulsion to get on his knees and pray to the Great Shade, but there was the nagging suggestion that, should that compulsion already exist, then it would be a lot easier to give in to it down here in the Pit of the Rune. Especially given the discomfort of roasting slowly over an open fire.  
There was a new commotion down below. The tone of the celebrations changed just enough to gather Sonic's interest, and he saw that many of the hessian-cloaked lizards were consulting, engrossed, with another figure who appeared to hold some kind of authority over the others. Perhaps an archbishop of sorts, some kind of High Priest of the Shade.  
"I wonder who he is," Sonic murmured.  
"The Tooth Fairy, for all I care," Cinos replied, "Feeling the heat yet, dear brother? Starting to sweat"  
"Mind your own business"  
"Now, that's a piece of advice you should have followed when I gave it to you months ago. If you'd had the sense to keep yourself to yourself then you'd be cool and comfortable right now surrounded by our good friends in Knothole"  
"No friends of yours, Cinos"  
"Sure they are! Sure! Hey, what've you got that I ain't got? Nothing, that's what. And hey, how are the old gang these days? How's Amy, you still got your eye on her? She's a real cutie, a real hot number"  
Amy was a slave to the Arack Empire, and Sonic had been working on her rescue when he had digressed to track his evil clone instead, unaware of how time-consuming this new task was to be. At the mention of her name, he was overwhelmed with concern about her wellbeing, and that of the Freedom Fighters. He was horrified by images of New Knothole being stormed by the armies of Terantulopolis, his friends marched away to start a menial and demeaning career of servitude to Arack.  
"If you ever lay a finger on her," Sonic said, "I'll saw off your hands and use them as doorstops"  
"Ouch! Touchy," Cinos replied, "Well, I guess I'll lay off, don't wanna start a fight with you. Don't wanna turn this into a cage wrestling match, not when we're bonding so well. This is a great excuse to get to know each other, don't you think"  
"I'm afraid of getting to know you," Sonic admitted. It was the truth. "I'm afraid of what might happen, and you should be as well"  
Cinos looked him in the eyes for the first time in the conversation, cautiously but curiously. "Yes," he said, "Yes, I know what you mean. We are the same person, you know. Shove us together in the same reality for too long, and the universe starts feeling a little crowded, starts trying to pull us together like two magnets with opposite charges. You know, you could always join me, Sonic. Together, we're halfway to being a deity already"  
"Never," Sonic replied.  
"Sure," Cinos said, "But you realise what that means. The moment we step outside this cage, it's war. This world will have one of us dead, one way or another, if it can't bring us together. And I don't have any intention of letting it be me." He grinned that toothy, terrifying shark-grin of his. "I'll kill you if I can, oh my brother. I like you, you know. I like you a lot. And I'd like very much for you to die"  
"I know," Sonic said, and the mind-race resumed, a precursor to the marathon around the world that was about to begin. The greatest race of their lives - two hedgehogs enter, only one leaves.  
The next real conversation they had was almost a full year later, and ended with a murder. Approach your starting positions please, gentlemen, and start your engines.

XI

"Blue animals!" a chameleon exclaimed, and ripped Sonic out of a reduced state of consciousness. He realised that his fatigue, combined with malnutrition and heat, were getting to him enough that his body was trying to shut down whether or not he was willing to allow it. Cinos, much more prepared for his journey than Sonic had been, was burdened with no such problem. Reflections of each other though they may have been, they were becoming much less equal as time went on and had its way with Sonic's overworked self.  
"Wakey wakey," Cinos muttered.  
"The Prophet is wishes to be speaking with you," the lizard said with its broken speech, "Is wishes to see you before you is to be given to the Great Shade"  
"I is cannot understandify," Sonic said.  
"I believe," Cinos replied, "That the fellow down below wants to have a word with us before he roasts our hides"  
A group of chameleon guards moved to collect the hedgehogs and escort them out of the cage. For a moment Sonic was sure that Cinos would execute some kind of escape plan the moment the cage door was opened, that he would slice their captors apart with a deadly spindash and bolt. But Cinos was complacent about the situation, and allowed them to take him willingly. In fact, he began laughing as the guards siezed him. "Hallelujah!" he exclaimed, "A Governor's pardon! At this late hour! Saved! Saved"  
"Could be out of the frying pan and into the fire," Sonic warned, as the lizards came to take him as well.  
"A poorly-executed pun, my brother," Cinos said, "Should I assume you have reservations about the motives of this so-called Prophet and his intentions toward us"  
"Bingo"  
Cinos laughed again as they were escorted together away from their near-execution. "Maybe he's a cannibal! And oh, maybe he's really hungry, too. Fe! Fi! Fo! Fum! I smell the blood of a mobian! And maybe I'll convince him to eat you first. You always were the juicy one, I'll give you that. Your bones would make excellent bread, dear brother"  
"You shut up!" one of the lizards commanded.  
"You know, you guys are too serious," the dark hedgehog continued, "You really should learn to smile more, get a sense of humour, maybe brighten up the decor around here so it's not quite so drab. Nothing says 'dangerous lunatic desert cult' like a nice coat of fuscia or teal"  
The chameleon slapped Cinos across the face, cutting him off. His larrikin grin vanished instantly, as though it had been slapped right off his head, and for just a moment it was replaced with what Sonic considered to be the most evil glare he had ever been unfortunate enough to see. For that moment it was as though his twin's facade had been stripped away and he had been given a glimpse of what was really at the fundamental core of what it was to be Cinos. A chill ran down his spine and he imagined that if that chameleon had been alone in a room with Cinos and had slapped him the way he did, then there wouldn't be very much left of the lizard before too long. After all, underneath the mask of a harlequin, Cinos was still an enthusiastic murderer. If he'd kill a person for looking at him awkwardly, Sonic couldn't bear to imagine the grisly fate of one who would dare to give him a demeaning slap across the face like that. Once again, Sonic was certain that his twin was about to go into a spin and create a bloodbath, but an apathetic grin once again found its way to Cinos' face and he continued to go willingly, although he kept an eye on that offending lizard, perhaps fantasising about the many horrid things he could do to him, things that didn't rightly belong in anybody's sane fantasy.  
The hedgehogs were once again taken to the antechamber with the hotspring, and thrown to their knees beside it.  
"You will be purified before you is speaking with the Holy Prophet!" one of the lizards demanded.  
"I've already had a bath today," Sonic said, but the hedgehogs were held down while they were washed and brutally scrubbed by their captors. Sonic got some small comfort out of the fact that every now and again a lizard would stab himself with one of his spines, with a pained yelp.  
After the purification, they were taken to seperate rooms and locked up. Sonic was alone again, and he was at once happy and dismayed to be seperated from his evil twin. What he was definitely happy about was being away from the scorching heat of the death cage. It was dark here, though, and once again he was bored senseless.  
No more than thirty minutes later, the door opened again and a chameleon stepped in, carrying a plate of food. This time, there was a considerable amount of it, and when the smell of roast beast hit Sonic's nose it felt like being punched in the face and again in the gut. Before his brain had time to interpret his senses, he had snatched the food away and was already devouring it. It was a by-product of his uncanny speed that his instincts often kicked in before he knew what he was doing, like anyone else might pull their hand back automatically when touching something hot, though on a larger scale. Sonic often referred to it as 'breaking the mind barrier.  
"Whoa, slow down there, feller, you'll give yourself indigestion," the lizard said.  
Sonic recognised the well-flowing speech and unique demeanour of this chameleon. It was Espio, the faithless and shunned one.  
"Hey, Espio, right?" the hedgehog said between bites, "Good to see you, thanks for completely abandoning me and furthermore continuing to help the Nutcase Cabal to prepare me for slaughter"  
"Hey come on dude," Espio protested, "I brought you a lot more food than I was supposed to"  
"Thanks, but it's not going to mean much if I'm dead"  
"Hey." Espio looked both ways, as though checking to make sure they were alone. Keeping his voice down, he said, "I might know a way I can sneak you outta here"  
"Oh?" Now he was interested. Any way he could get one-up on Cinos was of value to him.  
"Yes," the chameleon replied, "The other guy will be harder, but"  
"No," Sonic interrupted, "No, uh-uh, don't you worry about him. Just focus on getting me topside again and let him burn for all I care"  
Espio appeared shocked. "And here you are making cracks about imy/i lack of compassion! Aren't you twins or something? You look exactly the"  
"Compassion has nothing to do with it, he makes your Cabal look like a snug hamlet of happy little love pixies, believe me. And he's not the kind of twin that you're thinking of. We're not twins by birth, he's more like... like what happens when your negative thoughts bubble to the surface and someone skims them off like a layer of cream"  
"I don't follow," Espio said.  
"Don't worry, just tell me how I can get out of this hole," Sonic replied.  
"Well, I'll help you on one condition"  
"What's that"  
"I'll help you if you help me." Espio gave a weak smile. "I was kinda thinking how much I hate this place... you know, day in and day out being treated like scum by a bunch of uptight fundies, and I realised that all I need to do is find someone who can take me somewhere. I mean, somewhere pleasant, away from all of this, far away. If you know anywhere like that, then I'd love to come with you"  
"The Freedom Fighters..." Sonic muttered. "Tails said the very same thing to me once... back when we first met. I'm sorry, I'm talking about a friend of mine, his situation was a lot like yours, and he we helped each other escape so that we could get back to Knothole, the forest village where we both live now. It's a paradise, Tails wouldn't live anywhere else"  
"Sounds great," Espio said, "What's the catch"  
"The catch is that I'm not going back there for a while. I have some business to attend to first, and I don't know how long it's going to take. We might have to suffer through some worse places than this before things start to get better"  
"I guess that's always the way it is," Espio replied with a grin. "After you've cleaned enough toilets, though, you really start to wonder how many places really could be worse than this"  
"Cinos is crafty and very, very dangerous," Sonic said, "He iwill/i get out of here, one way or another. Even if he has to bring this whole place down and wipe out every single chameleon, he's going to get out. I need to be ready to follow him when he does, not locked in some cage. If you're ready to commit yourself to this, then I'll take you as far as you want to go. As long as you can keep up"  
"It's a deal, dude. Just show me where to sign"  
The portal creaked open and another chameleon stepped inside, flanked by others, some of whom were dressed in robes. Espio stepped aside to give them a berth, but they ignored his presence.  
"It's time," one of them said, and began to approach him.

XII

No words were exchanged between Sonic and Cinos as they were escorted together into the holiest chamber of the Chameleon Cabal. Clearly their reptilian captors would not tolerate the endless chattering of their radiant heretic sacrifices; more than that, though, Sonic felt that there was simply nothing more to be said between them right now. Cinos, being that he shared Sonic's mind, probably felt the same. While they were being marched side-by-side, Sonic could feel the hairs on the arm closest to his twin stand on end, like they might if he was close to something with a powerful static charge. He wondered briefly whether his unnatural proximity to his otherworldy 'brother' might even be irradiating him somehow, causing him harm, like standing too close to unshielded fallout. If so, a part of him gleamed a morbid satisfaction from the idea that he was having the same effect on Cinos.  
The chameleon priests (or acolytes, or monks, or shamen, or whatever they were) who wore the heavy, concealing robes stood in groups either side of the hedgehogs and their escorts as they approached the seated figure that Sonic could only assume was the Cabal's famous Prophet. With Cinos beside him, and with their slow and choreographed march toward the hooded figure at the head of the cathedral, Sonic had the sudden and hilarious impression that he and his evil twin were participating in some bizarre wedding. iIf that guy's first words are 'Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today'/i Sonic thought, iI am getting out of here even if it kills me./i Only silence waited for them at the base of the Prophet's throne, however. The hooded figure stared down at them from the dark abyss of his concealed face, and for a moment nothing was said. The chameleon clergy backed off a little, as though being too near their holy leader at this time was painful, or blasphemous, or both. The guards who escorted the prisoners, however, remained close at hand. Sonic and his twin were suddenly jabbed in he back with the lizards' spears, hard enough to draw blood.  
"Kneel before the Holy One!" a chameleon demanded, then shouted something in a language that Sonic didn't understand. Then, again in broken half-coherence, "His words is the marker of your fates are! You is unworthy of belief! He speak"  
"Well done," Sonic replied bitterly, "That was almost a sentence." He and Cinos complied with their captors' demands, getting onto their knees before the Prophet and staring up at him from the base of his too-tall regal throne. He hoped that they would not be asked to kiss his feet or anything of the sort.  
So this was it. This was the one pardon that Sonic's luck was willing to grant him, his one chance to do something or say something that might save him from the chameleon frying pan. If destiny meant this to be his escape opportunity, then now was surely the time to act. Staring up at that hooded face, however, Sonic's mind drew only blanks. For now, at least, he had no idea how he was to talk himself out of this situation.  
The Prophet lifted his right hand from the arm of the throne and raised it slowly towards the darkness behind his hood, and Sonic almost immediately noticed something rather bizarre. This regal religious figure was wearing a cheap, tacky, plastic novelty ring on his middle finger, one of those chemical-filled mood rings that changed colour depending on how warm and clammy the hand is.  
"Hey, hey wait a second!" exclaimed Cinos. A guard tried to silence him with his spear, but the dark hedgehog seemed to realise something that Sonic hadn't. Sonic looked again at that novelty ring and tried to remember why it looked so familiar, where he had seen one of those only recently.  
Before the answer came to him through his own effort, it was revealed to him by other means. The hand grasped the Prophet's heavy hood and pulled it back, their host's grinning face emerging from the shadow.  
"What are you doing here?" barked Cinos, in a tone of voice that may have been anger, or relief, or a bit of both.  
The Prophet of the Chameleon Cabal was Rasputan the Porcupine. He nibbled on his fingernail with complacent glee.  
"I'm doomed," Sonic said quietly.  
"Hey, K, whaddaya say!" the porcupine sang.  
"What-are-you-doing-here?" Cinos repeated.  
Rasputan shrugged, as if the answer were as straight-forward as a children's math puzzle.  
"I'm their prophecised holy leader!" he said, "Who knew"  
"Now I've seen everything," Cinos mumbled.  
"Hey, I just perform a few miracles and suddenly an obscure religious sect is worshipping me," the porcupine said, "Nothing much to do but go with the flow, right"  
Sonic noticed that the entire congregation of lizards had changed their skin colour to approximately match the shade of Rasputan's mood ring, which was a kind of greeny-yellow. He figured that that ring probably had something to do with the porcupine's high regard within the Cabal. For people who considered discarded candy wrappers to be gifts from God, the possession of a colour-changing jewel had probably the same impact as the ability to change water into wine.  
"This is ridiculous!" Sonic exclaimed, "Can't you people see that he's just an idiot with a two-dollar children's toy? He can't perform miracles, he probably can't even tie his own shoelaces"  
"iHeresy/i" Rasputan screamed, and on cue, one of the chameleon guards beat Sonic over the head hard enough to make him see stars.  
"Speak you will not against the Holy Prophet!" the lizard commanded. Rasputan giggled like a schoolgirl.  
"Well, it looks like you're having quite a ball here, Rasp," Cinos said, "Hate to put a damper on things, but time waits for no mobian. We've got some work to do, and I'd really rather get back on track with it. Tell your friends to get the rune down and show us the exit, will you? Oh, and get them to kill him." He pointed at Sonic, who gulped.  
"Hmm." Rasputan started biting his nails again, "See, I'm not entirely sure that's as easy as it sounds, K. I mean, these guys are awfully attached to that rock"  
As though the mention of the stone was some kind of cue, most of the chameleons clasped their hands together in prayer. One lizard in the crowd shrieked, "The Great Shade watches us always! He sees by way of the iStone/i"  
"The Stone," several others agreed.  
"And," the porcupine continued, "They've really been looking forward to frying you two. This is like the party of the century for these guys, they really don't get to bring out the good crockery very often if you get my drift and I think you do. I'm only a prophet, any command I give is really only more of a guideline"  
"The Prophet of the Shade!" a chameleon declared, "Tell us! Tell us of the End Time! Show us your colours"  
Cinos let out a sigh; not of defeat, but of irritation. Impatiently, he glanced up at the Rune, held high above the cathedral's sacrificial fire, and then back at Rasputan, who was basking in this ridiculously absurd farce.  
"Right," the dark hedgehog said, "I've had enough of this crap"  
Sonic had always been shocked and a little afraid when his twin made full use of his speed. He had never been in a position to see himself through the eyes of others, but this was closer to that than most people ever had the chance to be, he figured. It was a similar feeling to when people saw themselves on film and wondered; iIs that really how I look/i It was easy for Sonic to forget that, with Cinos around, he was no longer the fastest thing alive. When this reflected shadow-being turned on his jets, Sonic was always a little scared, for it reminded him that the talent he so often took for granted, when placed in the wrong hands, was a terrifying one.  
Before anyone even knew he was moving, let alone tried to stop him, Cinos had already reversed the balance of power. He leaped backwards, jumping above the weapons of his lizard captors, and landed behind them. By the time they turned to face him again, the dark hedgehog had already grabbed one of their spears and ripped it out of the guard's grasp. He snapped the weapon over his knee, keeping only the tip of it, and leaped forward again. Two and a half seconds after his first movement, he had Rasputan held hostage with the point of the spear against the porcupine's throat.  
Rasputan was still smiling and giggling even a moment after it happened. Even he had barely seen Cinos at work. Now his smile faded and distorted into a confused, half-blank expression of delayed shock.  
"Uhhh... Hey, Kinnos"  
"I'm your Prophet, now," Cinos announced. The congregation of lizards was in chaos, now, all of them crying out in horror and panic. "This is what I forsee. You purple mud-loving ifreaks/i are going to do as I say, or else the keeper of your destiny is going to bleed real bad"  
For a moment it seemed that Cinos was the only individual in the synagogue who was still breathing. Even Sonic's breath had caught in his throat, watching as the stand-off unfolded in terrifying slow motion before him. This was the dreaded moment of truth, his dark twin was going to escape the pit and have him murdered for his trouble. What could he do? Any attempt on his own part to attack the chameleons and make his own escape would probably only serve as a convenient distraction for Cinos to make off with his coveted Rune and escape the Cabal, and even then the chameleons, having seen one hedgehog already reveal his power, may be more prepared to bring down Sonic should he make a similar move.  
"Blasphemer!" one of the lizards shouted, "Unhand the great Prophet"  
"Sorry, doc," Cinos replied, "It's been a blast, it really has. No, I'm lying." The hedgehog took a step back, dragging Rasputan with him. The porcupine appeared half-terrified, and Sonic figured that he had good reason to - it was arguable whether being a friend or an ally to Cinos made it less likely that he would slit your throat just for something to do.  
Sonic glanced around madly and tried to figure out some way he could one-up his evil twin in this situation. It was then that he spotted his wild card, the one advantage he had, the ace up his sleeve that might make or break the next five minutes.  
Espio stood beside him, though he hadn't known how long the chameleon had been there. Sonic knew who it was, for all of the other lizards were somehow photocopies of each other, but Espio had his own character even now.  
"There'll be a special place for you all in the New World Order," Cinos rasped, "The world is ending, all right, but there's no heaven for you lot. The place where"  
Espio reached across and grasped a hold of Sonic's arm. Perhaps a gesture of comfort or consolation, perhaps a precursor to leading him away; either way, the moment the lizard's flesh touched his own, time stopped. It stopped dead.  
Cinos' mouth was still half open. He had been caught mid-sentence. Everybody else was completely static, the world had been paused like a film.  
Everyone except Sonic and Espio were as still as bodies in the grave.  
"Whoa..." Espio whispered, and the two turned to look at each other, "What just"  
Their eyes met, and Sonic saw an expression of something like horror on Espio's face for a moment - an expression that he himself imitated when he realised that he could see the entire universe in Espio's eyes.  
That was when Sonic had his first Awakening.

XIII

Sonic and Espio stood together in absolute darkness. Despite this, he had no trouble at all seeing the lizard. When he looked down to catch a glimpse of himself, he found that he could not see any part of himself. He didn't seem to have a body. He wondered if Espio's situation was reversed.  
(-happened)  
He heard Espio speak - but that wasn't quite right. He didn't hear it, he ithought/i it, or more accurately, he received Espio's thoughts as his own. Like they shared the same mind.  
_Am I dead_ he thought. It seemed a reasonable enough inquiry.  
(If you're dead, then we're dead together) replied the Espio-mind.  
_You heard my thought_  
(Yes... or something... this is... is this a dream)  
Sonic tried to close his eyes but found that he didn't have eyes to close. He was disembodied... he began to panic.  
_No... I have to remain calm. I think this is-  
_(-important)  
Sonic found to his monumental confusion that he was at times unable to differentiate between his own thoughts and Espio's. They finished each other's sentences, their thoughts ran together and mixed like two liquids.  
When Sonic calmed himself, he found that he had a body. Or imagined that he had one. Imagination and perception seemed inseperable concepts in this mixed-mind state. The hedgehog and chameleon stood across from each other in a blank, featureless abyss-world.  
(Sonic, where are we? What are we doing)  
_I don't know._  
(I'm scared, I need to get back to reality, I need)  
Espio's body seemed to fade away before Sonic's eyes.  
_No! Espio_ he projected his thoughts with as much force as he could muster, _You have to relax, I don't know why but I think that this is important, I think this is something we need to do, and we might never have another chance._ Espio manifested again, and calmed himself. Sonic could feel his calm.  
(I've never felt)  
_anything like this in-_  
(-my life)  
It seemed that the more they settled into this bizarre state, the more their minds seemed to merge, closer and closer until Sonic couldn't even tell whether he was Sonic or Espio anymore.  
iI don't know why/i Sonic thought, ibut I think this is called an Awakening./i The instant he transmitted this word, the setting changed. They were no longer standing in a blank and empty mindscape, but in the desert above the Pit of the Cabal, the Crux wasteland, the Barren Quarter. Sand blew in whisps around them, through them.  
(This is my life, you see)  
_and what I need is an-_  
(Escape)  
_Yes, I know. I can see that._  
(Can you help me? Will you)  
_I will. I don't think I can complete this quest without you.  
_(We are somehow connected... aren't we)  
_We are now._ Sonic wondered how long they might be able to remain in this state. Was time passing normally outside, or had time frozen for them indefinitely? Had they been granted all the time in the universe to do what needed to be done here? He thought probably not. They had some time, for sure, a lenient amount, enough for them to settle in to their first Awakening and do what needed to be done. But the engine of their fate would soon crank up again, and Sonic knew that if their business here had not been taken care of by then, they would be doomed. They would probably both die down here in the heat.  
_Espio, concentrate. I need you to open up to me._  
(I don't understand)  
_I need something... from your mind._  
(What is it)  
_I don't know._  
(I can't do this, Sonic, I'm... I'm losing my)  
Espio began to fade away again.  
_No, come back! Concentrate! Concentrate_ The lizard soldified, but his image was insubstantial and unstable. The connection between them was failing, there was a blockage in Espio's mind that prevented it. The chameleon refused to believe this was happening, it went against everything he believed about the simplicity of the world, and he held back.  
_Give it to me_ Sonic was wading through Espio's mind, searching for something. The information found was fragmented and scattered. The desert shifted around them like it was alive.  
(This isn't)  
_happening_  
Sonic found himself fading as well, now. Espio's disbelief was polluting his own mind, eating away at their connection like acid. They pulled away from each other, _pushed_ each other away, as two matching poles will push two magnets apart. But before their Awakening was severed, Sonic caught a glimpse of what he needed to know. Just a glimpse and nothing more - whether it was enough was yet to be known.

XIV

Espio released his hold on Sonic's arm like the hedgehog's flesh had seared him. His eyes were still wide with horror, and Sonic saw that, bizarrely, Espio's entire body had turned electric blue, the exact same colour as Sonic's spines.  
The moment their bodies broke contact, time started again.  
"-you're going is very dark and very uncomfortable." Cinos completed his sentence. He still held the Cabal's Prophet - Rasputan the Porcupine - hostage at the end of a spearhead.  
"What just happened?" Espio demanded, "What was that, what did you do to me"  
Sonic didn't reply, he looked up from the Chameleon's shock-riddled face and saw that Cinos was gone. He had bolted, and was running towards the statue that held the stone he wanted so dearly, the warriors of the Cabal hot on his heels. The time for action was now.  
"Do you still want to escape"  
"Say what?" Espio was still in shock.  
"I said, do you still want to escape? Answer me"  
"Yes! Yes, of course"  
"Then for pete's sake get on my back and ihold on/i"  
There were no more questions. Espio mounted the hedgehog like a jockey on his steed, and the blue blur was off like a shot before the Chameleon Cabal could reclaim their sacrifice. They left the cathedral and descended into the labyrinth that was the great Pit, leaving the enraged cultists in the dust.  
There was no time for directions, for consultations, for trial and error. It was time for speed, and the only thing driving Sonic now was what he had seen in Espio's mind. What he had glimpsed that was of such great importance - maps of the underground, knowledge of the Pit, information that only the mind of someone who had lived here all his life could provide. For a moment their minds had been one, and in that moment Sonic had downloaded all he needed to know to escape this horrid place.

They both tore through the Pit like blue wind, two blue blurs stirring the red sand and soil of this underground community. The dark hedgehog, Kinnos Sharpe, the scourge of the antiverse, made one last brutal move to desecrate the strange faith of the lizard cult, having offended the Prophet and spat in the eye of the Great Shade Himself. The final, mortal attack would strike at the most hallowed object in these caves, the Stone that throbbed with energy and hurt the head of its observer for the sight of it. Dozens of spears, skillfully thrown, zipped past him as he ran. He darted back and forth, laughing all the way, iroaring/i with laughter in fact, for the time of his victory was now, and it was so sweet.

Sonic could hear the shouts and cries of the Chameleon Cabal behind him, but they did not persue with the determination they had to begin with. Something was distracting them, he knew. Cinos. His dark twin would go for the Rune, and the Cabal would be more interested in this blasphemy than in his own escape. Nevertheless, he ran as fast as he could, Espio clutching at his spines, through tunnels and caves that were foreign to him.  
And yet they weren't foreign at all... a part of his brain insisted that he was hopelessly lost, but another part swore that he knew this place like the back of his hand. Espio's memories sat above his own like a layer of fog, and they weren't as lucid as his own, but he could read them just fine if he concentrated a little. Much of it came down to instinct, vague familiarity and de'ja'vu, but he knew that following these feelings would take him out just as sure as if he were reading a map.

Cinos scaled the massive stone statue of the chameleon that grew out of the wall of this strange cathedral. Who did it represent? Some great hero of ancient chameleon myth? Perhaps the Great Shade Himself? It interested him only in passing. He shouted taunts back down to the furious cavedwellers whose spears bounced harmlessly off the stone around and below him. When he reached the Rune, the sight of it filled his mind with such haunting images. Its proximity would be hideously uncomfortable to Sonic. It would be uncomfortable to anybody with a normal soul. But Cinos had some quite different ideas about what was uncomfortable, and as with many things, his reaction to its pulsing, hurtful energy was reversed. He was drawn to the Stone with the same inexplicable and unexplainable need as a moth to a light. When he touched it, he was swallowed by it.

Sonic emerged from the caves and was engulfed by the heat of the desert. Mixed with his relief was an almost equally intense feeling of dread.  
"Oh yeah," he said, "That's right. I forgot about this. Let's go back to the sacrifice cage"  
Espio dropped to the sand with a groan.  
"Ouch," he said, "You're... spikey"  
"I guess this is your last chance to go back to the Pit," Sonic told the chameleon, "I have to keep on Cinos' trail, and that means we have to keep moving. I have to admit, after the last few months, I'd sure love the company. And I have a feeling that somehow I was supposed to meet you"  
("You will have four Awakenings before your quest is complete," the street-preacher had said, "And then you will take his place)  
"I've gotta say that you freaked me out back there," Espio replied, "In fact, you scared the willies out of me. But I'll give it a shot anyway, as long as you promise not to try the brain-melt thing on me again." He paused for a moment, then added, "Besides, you need me, or else you'll die out here. It's a miracle you're not dead already, walking into the desert without any food or water. I'd better make sure you don't do anything... you know... stupid"  
"Welcome aboard, then. Let's get a head start on Cinos before he finds his way outta those caves"  
"He might not, you know," Espio said, "The Cabal could catch him. It's likely, even. You guys are fast, but there's only one of him, and he's like a bug in a spiderweb down there"  
"No," Sonic insisted, "He'll make it. Believe me"  
"Well it's a good thing we have so much time to spare, 'cause I'd like to know more about this wacky adventure of yours. You can tell me what reason two hedgehogs have to chase each other around the world, and it better be good."

XV

(Out walking in the frozen swamp one grey day I paused and said, "I will turn back from here.")

Sonic did tell his new companion all that he wanted to know, and the chameleon was increasingly interested. Sonic's enthusiasm grew with the knowledge that he was in the company of somebody whose spirit of adventure almost matched his own. Through Espio he could see shades of himself, he could recall what it was like to have been boxed in, to stare out over the hills and wish every day to be able to cross them, just to see what was on the other side. It was a quest of discovery for them both, and the more they saw of the world, the more they saw into themselves.

("No, I will go on farther--and we shall see.")

Espio had told Sonic that the first thing they were going to need, more important than anything else, was water. The second most important thing was food. Sonic knew not where his twin was headed, but Espio assured him that, if the dark hedgehog was to survive, he would need to do the same. The only civilisation within reach with no supplies was to the north, and so the puzzle of his evil twin's destination was not an important issue. They would head north, and either cross paths with Cinos again or not. The latter meant death for Cinos, and so the problem managed to solve itself.

(A small bird flew before me. He was careful to put a tree between us when he lighted)

It was a journey of about a day and a half, and the travellers would be severely weakened by the end of it, but alive. The main thing was to always stay alive. And it seemed to Sonic that indeed some strange kind of fate or destiny was driving him, had brought him together with his new companion, for without his chameleon guide he would surely die in the desert and Cinos would inherit the title of the fastest, and most evil, thing alive. It seemed to him that there were powers beyond his reckoning that wanted him to keep trucking. He could only hope. For now, time passed them by, brought tomorrow closer, with all of its mysteries.

(And say no word to tell me who he was)

* * *

ESPIO:  
The Second Interlude

I've travelled the world from sea to sea and seen remarkable things,  
The falls of empires, the rise of mountains, the legacies of kings,  
But never again in all my life have I been able to find,  
A character so free that he was shunned by his own kind.

He questioned his beliefs, examined their validity,  
The reasons that things happen in this world of mystery,  
But skepticism was never a virtue among his kin,  
And he found he must assimilate or be accused of sin.

I met him on my travels once, a creature full of thought,  
Who ran critical analysis over all that he was taught,  
But this was known as heresy and he was cast aside,  
Doomed to walk the earth alone, and punished for his pride.

I asked him, "Free of Spirit, why cannot you just accept,  
That without your faith, among your kind you garner no respect"  
He replied, "I fear that these are simply not beliefs that I can hold,  
When everything I see does contradict what I am told."

I said, "But will you sacrifice your kin for such a stand"  
He replied, "I simply want to be allowed to understand,  
I lack the ability to put my conviction on a shelf,  
This world is so complex I need to seek the answers for myself."

I've travelled this globe all over, oh the lessons I have learned,  
The cultures I have visited, great empires overturned,  
But what a lesson I have learned from one who complemented faith,  
And who sought belief in something whole but with a solid base.


	3. Three: Malachite

AWAKENING  
S Peter Davis 

All characters (C) SEGA, Archie and SP Davis 2004 (unless otherwise noted.)  
Used without permission

* * *

Three:  
Malachite

* * *

We twist and turn where angels burn,  
Like fallen soldiers we will learn  
That once forgotten, twice removed,  
Love will be the death of you.

- Savage Garden

* * *

PERSPECTIVE

I

The streets of Newton were quiet as the sun positioned itself overhead. The occasional horse trotted by with a carriage, a mobian driver on the reins, but the rolling tumbleweeds provided most of the action in this town. The fact was becoming clearer and clearer every day, and now it was only the stubborn who refused to admit it: Newton was moving on. Once this had been a bustling, hi-tech town of merchants and businesses, the mecca of trade between Westerica and the eastern territories. That time had long passed.  
A figure could be seen passing the shops and houses by the street. A short, dark individual wearing a travelling coat. Most people he passed avoided him, and made little attempt to cover up the fact.  
He turned his head to watch a passing carriage. The driver pretended not to have noticed him. He whipped the reins and shouted "YAH!", and the horse trotted faster.  
The figure continued walking. His feet made a peculiar clanging sound with each step.  
_EDWARD'S SHACK OF TECHNICAL SUPPLIES_, read a sign above one store. The coated figure read it out aloud, and then pushed the door open.  
The propriator of the store looked up when the door opened and triggered the doorbell. He had been dusting his bench, but now he stood still, his gaze sharp and cautioning. He frowned when the figure stepped up to the counter and looked back at him.  
"I thought I made it known that we don't serve your kind here." he said. An overweight, greasy squirrel. His use of the word _we_ when he was the only one serving indicated that he probably meant the statement to cover every shop in the town.  
"I have nowhere else to go in order to acquire the items I seek," the figure replied. "I intend to purchase them legally"  
"Yeah, right," the squirrel smirked. "You know that your very _existence_ is a felony in this country"  
"Precisely, sir," the figure shot back. "And therefore I am already committing a crime over which I have no control. Believe me when I say I feel no need to commit another. Your business is slow here. Nobody has any use for your wares. Newton has moved on, sir, and soon you will have to move on with it. I have no need for money, being what I am. You have no need for this hardware. We have what each other wants, and I am merely suggesting a trade so we can both return with more peace of mind. Now, sir, I ask you again to serve me"  
The squirrel looked skeptical. The mysterious figure reached into his coat pocket and produced a handful of gold coins. One of the fingers on his glove was missing, and through the hole poked a shining silver claw. He dropped the coins on the bench.  
The shopkeeper picked up a coin and looked it over. He put it in his mouth and bit down on it. Then he stared back up at the figure again for a long time.  
Finally, he mumbled "What do you want, then"  
The figure inspected the shelves on the back wall.  
"Four hydrolic pistons. Two twenty-four inches, two twenty-five inches. Two tesla batteries, high voltage, mainframe compatible. Ten high data compression silicon chips. Two scanning bulbs, diameter ten millimetres. One large coil electromagnet"  
The shopkeeper harvested all these items from his shelves with little trouble, and dropped them on the bench in front of his customer. Then he scooped up all the coins and deposited them in a register.  
"I thank you for your co-operation," the figure said, lifting his purchases and turning around.  
"Hold it," the squirrel said. The customer stopped in his tracks, and turned his head. Something red was glowing from inside his hood.  
"Are you done here"  
"Yes. These items will conclude my business"  
"Good. Because I ain't letting you in here no more, understand?" His eyes narrowed. "Once you walk out that door, it's for good. And another thing... now, I don't know exactly what you're intending to construct with these... items... but whatever it is, I want no part in it. When you get caught doing whatever it is you're doing, and they ask you where you got those parts from, you just tell them it was anywhere at all except my shop, you understand? If anybody traces your dealings back to me, I swear to God I'll rip your gears out and wear them as a necklace, you hear"  
"I understand," the figure replied. But his gaze was past the shopkeeper, to the back of the store.  
"What is that?" he asked.  
"Wha?" The squirrel turned his head.  
Something elongated and jagged sat on the shelf. It was emitting a yellow glow, bathing everything around it.  
"That there's the eighth Chaos Emerald"  
The figure appeared confused. "There are only seven Chaos Emeralds." he corrected.  
"You wanna argue with me?" the shopkeeper snapped. "I don't know just what the heck that thing is, but the nutter who sold it to me says it's the eighth Chaos Emerald, so that's what I'm going with. Nack, his name was. Travels all over the place collecting junk like that"  
"Nack," the figure repeated, a spark of recognition showing. "He is a fiend... but insincerity is not among his vices. Perhaps there is some truth in this"  
He dug another pile of gold coins from his pocket.  
"I wish to also purchase the emerald."

II

A wide, tall roller-door opened ever so slowly, and with much noise. Its rusty, weather-worn components wailed and screeched, and as it opened, light flooded into the pitch black garage. The figure in the long coat and hood stood at the entrance, darkened against the sun, and stepped inside. He pulled the chain on a lightbulb, and closed the door behind him. Then he removed his coat. Sparkling blue, silver and yellow metal not only covered, but composed his entire body. The clothing dropped to the floor.  
Mecha Sonic had wandered for some time before eventually settling in Newton. Since the exile of his creator and master, a brutal despot known as Robotnik, Mecha had been at a kind of loose end. Unable to honour his primary mission program - to serve his master - he had no choice but to devote the entirity of his time to his secondary program - to learn. Mecha was a learning computer, the most advanced ever conceived, and after several years of constant input, his mainframe was going through some interesting changes.  
Mecha had been granted the capacity to think like a person. Now he was cursed by it.  
"I have returned, Malachite," he announced. "You are to be completed, now"  
Something sat motionless on an old wooden stool in the corner of the garage. Its chassis was of dull, tarnished metal. Another robot. Only this one remained still, dead to the world.  
Mecha walked over to this second robot and opened a hatch on its belly. The metal hedgehog opened one of the boxes he had just purchased, and brought out two enormous cylindrical batteries. Inspecting them for a moment under the red glow of his eyes, he proceeded to insert one of them into the robot's belly cavity. It loaded with a clipping sound, and Mecha inserted the second one beside it, inverted. Once done, he flicked a switch above them, and closed the compartment. Standing up again, he admired the robot for a moment, and then looked down at the other boxes. Opening a small one, he found ten silicon chips sitting neatly beside each other in something resembling an egg carton. Walking back to the robot, he pushed something in the back of its head, and its face opened with a hissing sound. This appeared to be the control centre of the entire machine. There were already two large chips embedded in the face, and spaces for ten more. Delicately, Mecha inserted all the chips. Then he pulled over another box containing two objects similar to lightbulbs, and screwed them in where the robot's eyes should go. Then he closed the face, which caught with a click. There were now two bulbs staring back at him.  
Now his attention turned to a large computer, which was sitting on a desk beside him. It was just a desktop PC, but the case was removed, and several wires were streaming from it into the back of the robot. Mecha switched on the computer and waited for it to boot up, and then started rapidly typing on the keyboard. He stabbed the enter key, and looked at the robot. Its eyes, the two bulbs he had screwed in, lit up an emerald green, and a picture appeared on the computer screen - a camera view of what was in front of the robot.  
"You can see," Mecha said, and began typing again.  
The eyes panned, and so did the picture on the screen. Mecha nodded in approval.  
"Time to meet me now, Malachite"  
He typed more commands into the computer, and he was answered by a series of beeps and whirrs from the robot. Then a woman's voice echoed throughout the building, "Booting up systems, please wait"  
Mecha stood back and did just that. Eventually, the robot's head moved... it looked straight at him.  
"Greetings, Malachite," Mecha said.  
"Unable to process," the robot said in a strong female voice.  
"Your name is Malachite," Mecha responded.  
The robot, Malachite, stared for a few moments, and then said "Malachite"  
"Yes," Mecha replied. "And who am I"  
"You are Mecha," Malachite replied.  
"Correct"  
"You are my creator"  
"Correct"  
"You are master unit"  
At this, Mecha shook his head. "Negative"  
"Does not compute," Malachite complained.  
"We are equal in status," Mecha explained, "Neither of us shall be regarded as higher than the other in rank"  
"Creator of Malachite unit equals superior," Malachite insisted.  
Mecha didn't reply to this. Instead, he moved over to the computer and began typing.  
"I am going to download a copy of my mainframe to your motherboard," he said. "Everything I know will be transferred to you. Afterwards, you will be able to understand my feeli- my... instructions... for you"  
He produced another silicon chip, a very large one, and plugged it into the PC motherboard somewhere, and resumed typing.  
"Error, I believe this data contains a virus," Malachite said, "Seventy terabytes of data located, and this figure is constantly increasing in value and complexity. This is irrational"  
"It is normal," Mecha insisted, "It is only... moss"  
"Acknowledged"  
Mecha instructed the computer to download, and then turned around.  
"I will return, Malachite. Proceed with download"  
"Affirmative."

III

As he walked down the streets of Newton in his coat, he admired the landscape. Desolate, dry, remote, like a metaphor for his state of mind. People always avoided him. By this time, everybody knew what he was no matter whether he wore the coat or not. He was a non-citizen, an illegal creation due to Westerica's anti-technology constitution. If the Android Wars of years past hadn't attached an irrepairable stigma to the concept of technological progress, then Robotnik's short but genocidal reign over the once glorious empire of Mobitropolis managed the killing blow. Mecha wasn't sure whether anybody in Newton knew that his genesis was at the hands of the most infamous tyrant of the modern world (in fact he suspected they didn't, because the people's reaction to one of Robotnik's machines among them would probably be to destroy him on sight), but nevertheless it was clear that no robot was welcome on Mobius, and that wasn't likely to change anytime soon. The world was moving on, and his kind was to be left behind with the rest of the skeletons in the Mobian closet.  
On this day, he happened to come across somebody he hadn't seen in town before, and considered it fairly strange because Newton was a very small town with very few people, so much so that everybody was on a first name basis with everybody else. The stranger was a chameleon, his vast bank of knowledge informed him, a variety of reptilian mobian native to the desert regions of Westerica and known for their communal nature. Mecha watched this stranger with much interest, and the chameleon wandered away to converse with somebody out of sight. Eavesdropping was one of the vices that came with being such a technologically advanced piece of hardware programmed to learn absolutely everything.

Collaborating sound data: SUBJECT A: "-sleep here for a night. I'm so tired"  
SUBJECT B: "We'll have to work for it, we ain't got no money"  
Analysing : please wait.  
SUBJECT A: Identity Unknown (Chameleon)  
SUBJECT B: Sonic Hedgehog

!WARNING! PRIORITY ONE HEDGEHOG PRESENT IN THE AREA

Mecha's head snapped around, away from them. Had he seen him? Had he seen his red eyes? It was unexpected, shocking, and it made no sense at all, but somehow, the situation was clear... Sonic the Hedgehog was in Newton.

IV

iHe intends to destroy you/i, Mecha's system assured him, and it was more than just irrational paranoia, it was worse, it was irational/i paranoia, for what other possible reason would Sonic have to be this far from home, in the middle of nowhere? All of the pieces of the logic puzzle fell together to form a map of Sonic's behaviour. The chameleon was obviously hired by the hedgehog to track Mecha through the desert. It wasn't enough that Robotropolis had fallen, Sonic's incurable and egocentric drive for heroism had him traversing the continent to seek out and destroy every scattered remnant of Robotnik's empire.  
Mecha's hatred for Sonic the Hedgehog was total. The delicate instrument that was his powerful mind had been miscarried in its critical first phases of development by the mindgames that Sonic had played with him in his first weeks of sentience, and as a result he remained fundamentally confused about his identity even now. Mecha was intelligent enough now to know that he was what any mobian would define as a machine, a robot. But ironically, his intelligence, vast as it was, also led him to realise that this was categorically inaccurate despite any level of opinion. His mind operated on all the fundamental principles of a living brain. That his brain was made of silicon and metal did not make it any less a brain, by its very definition. That his organs were vastly different to any that could be found inside any other creature did not affect their classification as organs. His anguish came from the fact that, as far as his intellect was concerned, he was as much a life form as he was a machine. Furthermore, it recognised that these categories were a product of intellectual opinion and did not exist in nature, therefore it was impossible to settle upon a conclusive decision either way. In fact, being both ilife/i and imachine/i might even have been a tolerable state in which to exist, had Sonic not tormented him about it in his crucial 'adolescent' stage.  
(You're not alive! Living things ibleed/i)  
Mecha did not remember the context of this memory, when it was said or precisely what it meant. It was a rogue sound byte that remained in his system despite Robotnik's and his own efforts to purge and reformat his mind-computer, to target what Robotnik had referred to as ian emotive seed, the kernal of a virus that, unchecked, would corrode his delicate instruments./i Sonic had planted that seed. Only Sonic had been able to do it, for Sonic was the key to Mecha's identity quandry: That he was not, in fact, the purest form of what he was. iSonic/i was the purest form of what he was. If Sonic was what Mecha was, then Mecha wasn't. And if Mecha wasn't what Mecha was, then how could Mecha possibly be anything at all?  
The purging attempts had failed. Most of Mecha's memories from his first year of existence were gone, but the virus had resisted deletion. Sonic's seed was too ingrained, and it had grown into what Robotnik had called an iemotional moss/i, some kind of mental fungus that had irreversably broken down the mind of the world's most dangerous assassin into a quivering introverted sack of misery amass with questions for which there were no answers.

Q: What is the significance of the name iMiekha/i?  
A: Unknown

Many of these questions may have been meaningless, the result of the emotional moss implanting him with false memory bytes and false logic. For some reason his tormented mind sometimes went beyond assuring him that he should be a life form... that in fact he ihad been/i a life form and that had been taken from him. And for some reason he felt that this, too, was Sonic's fault.  
As he pondered the problem of his discovery by his nemesis, he was suddenly and unexpectedly taken to consider that Malachite might appreciate the purchase of some nice clothing to wear about. Not only this, but would Malachite be safe from Sonic without Mecha nearby to protect her? It was not beyond Sonic, he figured, to want to destroy what he had created in an effort to more thoroughly remove all that he was from the face of Mobius.  
Mecha's malice towards Sonic was comprehensible. Sonic's malice towards Mecha was not.

Calculating:Please wait Chance of Sonic locating Malachite plus/minus 06  
:p:please:don't let him:hurt her:

V

South of Newton was the desert. The Barren Quarter ate the east of Westerica in an arc from coast to coast and isolated it from the eastern nations. This is why Newton had been so important in the past, for it had served as a gateway through this harsh terrain. It sat on one of the largest lakes on the continent, Lake Survival, and nobody travelling by land approached Westerica from the east without passing through it. But even in the latter years of King Charles Acorn's rule of Mobitropolis, this once bustling town had all but dried up. The fall of that mighty metropolis had cast Newton, along with many other towns, into its death throes. The cohesion that Mobitropolis had provided to the provinces of Westerica had fragmented, and the entire region was doomed to be divided and picked apart by the encroaching Arack Empire and other powers whose influence over the land had been held at bay by the Acorn monarchy.  
Nobody had much reason to trade with Westerica anymore, and the region was drying up like a well in a long period of drought.  
Mecha figured that he would need to move again before long. His knowledge of the Northern Territories of Mobius was very poor, but it was the only place he could think to go. It would not be wise to remain for much longer in the dying land of Westerica, a place that would, in all probability, descend into war soon (and almost certainly lose). To the south was the badlands of Kirandul, Arack territory, and that was even less safe. The north may have been unknown, but it was a safe kind of unknown rather than a hazardous ignorance. A quiet region, less tainted by the stigma of mechanical creations (although nowhere on the planet was entirely free of it... nowhere at all.  
When Malachite was finished downloading, he decided, they would go together into this unknown and attempt to settle in the far north, somewhere peaceful and far from judgement... far from Sonic.  
The central processing units of both Malachite and the computer were running at maximum speed, and the download was still only one percent completed, when Mecha returned to check on his creation. Mecha himself was even surprised at the complexity of his own mind. Malachite's mind was not as complex as his own and would not be capable of completing the download (Mecha's ability to recreate his own technology was not limited by his intellect, but by the availability of materials). Still, he hoped she would be able to retain enough for this to all be worthwhile. Malachite looked up at him blankly.  
"Welcome back, Mecha Sonic," she said, "I'm pleased you have returned"  
She was indeed picking up some personality in the transfer.  
"I have brought you a gift, Malachite," Mecha replied, "I travelled far to get it"  
He held out the package with one hand, tearing away the paper wrapping with the other. A stunning black dress, sparkling in the dim light. Its length extended all the way to the floor.  
"I recalled your schematical information to locate a perfect fit"  
Malachite stared her blank, robot stare at the dress for a long time, and then said "Such beauty... I would get rust on it"  
"Nonsense." Mecha replied. "I have cleaned and sealed your components. Robots are not respected among the organics, Malachite. You will be looked upon as a thing of beauty, not of disgust. As you should be"  
"My highest appreciation, Mecha," Malachite replied, "Complex programs have activated within the data you have provided me. I am unsure how to react"  
"They are emotions," Mecha said, "React the way you feel you should react"  
"Do I feel"  
He did not reply, but simply handed her the dress.  
"Resume the download."

VI

"Robots, eh"  
The Out of Towner moved his hand to touch the long, thin scar that stitched his face together like a zipper. An injury newly healed, a crescent of pink baby-skin where his jet black fur would never grow. He grinned and rubbed his hands together, knitted and un-knitted his fingers again and again, and it was easy to tell that he was building up a sweat under those devil-red gloves. The others watched the Out of Towner with great intensity, a kind of untrusting expression written on every face that made it clear his presence was only tolerated, not welcomed. The expression on his own face was the only one that differed vastly; he was grinning, and on the right side of his face, the side marred by that scar, his eye and the corner of his mouth twitched periodically with a nervous tic. His anxiousness and his excitement was irregular and more than a little worrying.  
"Robots, eh? Robots indeed, but how exactly am I to be sure that this is the iright/i robot"  
One of the townsfolk frowned and tried, if it were possible, to make his face even stonier before this arrogant stranger. After all, nobody was in the mood to be taking any guff from an Out of Towner. Sometimes it takes an outsider to deal with an outsider, and that was the only reason this conversation needed to take place.  
"He matches the description. Unless there's more than one blue metal hedgehog with glowing red eyes walking about the place, your accursed machine is right here. I think you know it, too, would you have come all this way if you weren't sure"  
"Perhaps, perhaps you're right," the Out of Towner chuckled, "And there's only one robot matching that description, so far as I know. Used to be that there were two, you know, but that's all in the past now and nothing's going to change that"  
"There is the matter of the ransom"  
Now the Out of Towner began laughing, and pounded his fist on the table. "Predictable! Mobian nature is just so darned predictable, isn't it? The mind is always focused on just one thing. The ransom is all yours, buddy, but payment on delivery. I want that robot, alive. Well, not ialive/i, but you catch my meaning"  
"And just how exactly are we supposed to do that"  
"Well, I'll tell you. But you have to listen close and listen good."

VII

The garage was silent. Malachite's head shot up as if awakened by a nightmare. Mecha Sonic's knowledge and memory were still being transferred into her mainframe, and one topic in particular had begun to download.  
Sonic. A single identity file, the same as any of the other thousands of people Mecha had stored knowledge of over the years. The difference was that he was fairly indifferent to the vast majority of these people, but Sonic's file had about a terabyte of emotion data connected to it, encrypted with it. Malachite's systems screamed virus, the rapidly mutating and growing 'moss' data was more potentially malevolent than anything else of the like that had been deposited into her mind thus far. The personality that had begun to develop within her fought for its own protection, and commanded her to rip these wires out of her head and preserve her mind from this acidic and virulent data. But her motor functions had not been properly configured, and she was as powerless and terrified as a quadriplegic hospital patient watching somebody inject half a litre of cyanide into her drip.  
As the data rolled on, Malachite watched fragments of half-deleted memory and broken images flood past. Names without connotation, as though whispered on the wind. Ashura, Miekha, Sally. There was Cyber Sonic, there was Silver, there was Rosa, there was something about a diary, a record of tragic events long since erased and covered up. But Mecha's brain was different to that of a normal robot, data couldn't simply be erased like a hard drive. His operators had gotten most of it, yes, but there was a residue locked in the deepest recesses of his consciousness, hiding too far inside. There was a story in Mecha's past so significant that it could never be fully removed, and Malachite watched some of it as it passed through her system. She saw enough.

VIII

Malachite said nothing of it the next day when Mecha checked on her progress. He bid her good morning, and she gave him the same salutation. He checked his instruments, made sure everything still worked as it should, and then excused himself as he left her alone to her download.  
There were few times when Mecha truly put effort into trying to comprehend what he was doing. So much effort had been put in to creating Malachite, so much time and energy, and for what? The quandry of logical justification he put down to the appeasement of an irrational need. His moss data, as he had come to know it, his redundant emotional surplus, had created a kind of need, what a true organic might liken to a drug addiction. Certain needs (or more accurately, wants) had to be addressed before he could function properly. What Mecha wanted was kin, some kind of companionship. He wanted to be proximal to something like himself. And he wanted to create.  
He retained memory of the last time he had been given the opportunity to appease this need - and had displeased his master in so doing. Some time back, Robotnik had attempted to send a cyborg spy to infiltrate the Freedom Fighters and assassinate Sally Acorn. For the first time, Mecha had been granted an invitation to help design the robot, and had experienced a level of enthusiasm for the project that even surprised himself. The finished product, an extremely attractive female echidna look-alike named Rosa, had raised eyebrows in Robotropolis. It was the truth that Mecha had never even considered the possibility that his motives in creating Rosa were anything but clinical and straight-forward, but there was an unspoken accusation for a while that Mecha was subconsciously attempting to manufacture a mate for himself, as part of an unforseen side-effect from being created to mentally emulate a living creature. Mecha had denied this even from himself, but could not deny a disturbing level of emotional reaction when Rosa was murdered by Sonic the Hedgehog.  
Based on past accusations, it would have been folly to refuse to consider the possibility that these things were happening in his mind even now, that biological 'junk instinct' he carried in his half-living brain was responsible for his inescapable desire to create once again, to call his creation female and to make it in his own image. Such a sociopathic creator as Robotnik had seen no need to implant Mecha with knowledge of the concept of love (had in fact probably not even known anything about it himself) and Robotropolis was a very poor learning environment for such things. So Mecha's grasp of the meaning of this word was feeble at best. How he could crave something he couldn't even define was so far beyond him that it seemed to be insanity. Yet it was truth, unless the emotional moss had corroded his mind so critically that he no longer operated within the boundries of reason.  
As Mecha thought, he began to wander, and as he wandered, he walked right into the path of Sonic the Hedgehog.  
Oh no! His eyes! As soon as he saw the hedgehog standing before him, he turned around and faced the other direction, covering his face with his hands and hoping Sonic would just walk away. He didn't. Thank goodness he was covered up by his overcoat, and the hedgehog didn't seem to have recognised him.  
"Hey... do you have the time?" The hedgehog asked him.  
"Ten twenty-three oh seven antimeridian, the morning of April seventeenth! Go away!" Mecha snapped.  
Sonic was taken aback. "Hey... did you even look at your watch then"  
But Mecha was already hurrying in the other direction. When he was at a safe distance, he watched his biological nemesis from afar. Sonic was travelling again with the purple chameleon, and the two of them stood by the town mailbox. The hedgehog slipped a small white envelope into the box, and then he and his companion disappeared around a corner.  
As soon as Mecha judged that it was safe, he came out into the open again. He walked by the street, back towards the mailbox. It was a small, wooden thing, painted red. Mecha had lived in Newton long enough to know that the mail carrier emptied the box once a month if there was anything in it, and then departed into the desert on a camel. He stared down at the box for a long time, looked both ways, and then tried to open it. It was locked. So the robot put his fist through the side of it. Rotting wood splintered and broke away as the side of the mailbox collapsed. Somebody came rushing out of the saloon nearby and began shouting abuse at him, but he ignored it.  
Inside, there were two letters. The one on top was addressed thusly:

Sally Acorn via House of the Mayor,  
Station Square

Seeing as the village of New Knothole wasn't officially recognised by the general postal route as an actual place, it seemed the hedgehog had tried to get a letter to Sally by sending it to the mayor of Station Square. The city had been on close terms with the Freedom Fighters in the past year.  
Grabbing the letter and ripping it open in one fluid motion, Mecha took it apon himself to read Sonic's private correspondence. After all, it was without a doubt some kind of telegram informing the Freedom Fighters that he had tracked Mecha down to a small town in the wasteland of the Crux Desert, and that his time on Mobius was running short.

Dear gang,

Sonic, here. No doubt you're wondering where I have been these past few months,  
and I'm sorry to have worried you by leaving without any word or warning.  
I had wanted to send you a letter sooner,  
but I haven't been travelling close to civilisation, and the mail system sucks up here, seriously.

The letter told of quests and oaths, of parrallel worlds, evil twins and magical stones. A fairy tale that made little sense to Mecha, besides the obvious fact that the entire message was written in some kind of code designed specifically to prevent prying eyes from deciphering its true meaning. Sonic was more insidious than Mecha had given him credit for - and why not? Had Sonic not proven his guile on many an occasion? All that the robot could figure out was that Sonic was persuing somebody, and that was all that he needed to prove his suspicions. Why couldn't Sonic just leave him alone? Was there nowhere on Mobius that he could run without worrying about being stalked by the hedgehog who had haunted him since the first days of his creation?  
The guy near the saloon was still shouting abuse. Mecha needed to find somewhere quiet and safe where he could think in peace, and so (after crumpling the letter and throwing it away) he activated his rocket blaster with a roar of flame and smoke, and took off over the rooftops.

IX

The day moved on and so did Newton. A few lonely tumbleweeds rolled down the quiet streets past the dilapidated buildings, many of them abandoned now. It might seem to a casual observer that what remained of the community was being eaten by the landscape, that soon the Crux Desert would rise and swell, and swallow this town in a tide of dry neglect.  
In the failing industrial district, a number of abandoned warehouses stood eroding away in the sand and wind. Inside one of these warehouses was hidden the secret project of one of the last of a forbidden race, if a mechanical being can be said to be a part of a race. Malachite sat alone in the corner, and it may have been difficult for someone to understand what she was, unless they already knew. A strange amalgomation of machine parts without order or apparent reason, as though some mad sculptor had welded together a random collection of junkyard scrap in the vague shape of some person of ambiguous species. Mecha Sonic was a learning computer, but he still had a lot to learn about the concept of aesthetic beauty as understood by the average mobian. The beauty he saw in Malachite had little to do with physical appearance. Visuals, after all, were only one very small part of the total spectrum of sensory perception, the whole of what constituted the understanding of reality.  
The double roller-doors providing entrance into the warehouse suddenly roared into life, and Malachite's natural expectation was that Mecha, her master, had returned.  
But this was not the case.  
A number of strangers stepped into the empty building, silhouetted against the bright light of outside. Mobian, all of them. Biologicals, entities that Malachite had learned not to trust, because Mecha did not trust them. But Malachite did not yet have the ability to defend the domain of herself and her master against the intrusion, so all she could do was watch.  
"Well, well, well..." someone exclaimed, and the strangers, four in all, began to approach her.  
"Your presence constitutes an intrusion," Malachite said.  
Somebody whacked her across what passed for her head, and the robot flopped like a rag doll.  
"That ugly thing's tryin' to make isself a friend!" one of the strangers drawled. "Won't be long before we gots robots overrunning this whole town, I reckon! We best be showing these vermin who runs this town, right away."

X

Mecha Sonic returned to Newton hours later in another state of excitement. He carried a large shopping bag in each hand, and wandered back towards the garage without even bothering to put his overcoat back on. But there was a feeling of dread which intensified as he neared the building.  
The bags were full of cosmetics and paint. Mecha, at last, was going to give his creation a face. He produced a digitally rendered portrait of it in his mind. Beautiful. He failed to see how anybody at all could hate, or even dislike, something that looked like that, which was all a part of his plan. Malachite, he decided, would have all of the opportunities in this world that he himself had never been offered. It was now that Mecha began to detect the abberational data functions that signalled the onset of an emotion. As of recent times, this was not particularly odd, but his software was constantly evolving to recognise more varieties of emotional reaction, and this was an emotion his systems did not recognise. It was a weaker version of dread, but irrational dread with no recognisable source. Apparently an error, a system malfunction. There was no reason to feel this way, as though something were terribly wrong with the world.

Choose to ignore emotional data?  
Y Program override. Emotion deleted.

Whatever the odd feeling had been, Mecha erased it from his systems and continued onward. Moments later, though, the feeling resurfaced, immune to his efforts to remove it. Yet another reason this 'moss' data was not unlike a virus. It always seemed to find a way to replicate itself and invade every facet of his ability to operate. In the later period of service to his master, Robotnik had all but lost faith in his abilities. The systematic softening of his mind was only fogging up his powerful programmed instincts.

WARNING: Could not delete emotional data. Please check to:mal: make sure file is not curren:achite:tly in use and is not write protected.

Could it be that the emotion wasn't faulty, that there really was some reason to feel dread? Mecha had a possible theory about emotions that hypothesised that on some level they actually allowed a sharpening of the senses rather than an overall decrease in their efficiency - dulling one program to enhance another. Perhaps his iemotional/i senses had picked up some sign of impending calamity that was too small for even his powerful instruments to detect.  
Mecha's dread took over his actions. He began to hurry back to the warehouse where he had hidden Malachite. What a fool he had been! Leaving his precious and delicate creation alone and without protection while Sonic was in town with malice on his agenda! There was no justification for his imbecility. If Malachite had been harmed.  
The robot gained access to his hideaway and instantly discovered that his emotive response had indeed predicted accurately. The warehouse was in shambles, equipment scattered about the place as though a tornado had gutted the building. All the electronics had been destroyed, including the powercharged computer he had been using to transfer his mental data into Malachite's system. The download would have been close to complete. He and Malachite might have been able to flee Newton that very evening if he had been left undisturbed for just another few hours.  
There was a handwritten note tacked on to the chair where Malachite had been seated:

Robot,

The PEOPLE of Newton would like to have a discussion with you regarding your activities in this peaceful town. We do not want YOUR KIND hanging about here making trouble for us.

Meet with us at the town hall so that we can discuss your future here in more detail.  
And DO NOT EVEN THINK about making trouble.  
WE HAVE WAYS of making THINGS like you less dangerous so you do not want to make this difficult.

Signed, THE PEOPLE.

! - Emotional data detected in mainframe.  
Please wait:  
Data file isolated Emotion recognised as: Rage  
WARNING: Core temperature rising above suggested range

!CRITICAL TEMPERATURE ACHIEVED! Activating emergency cooling system

Slowly, Mecha Sonic's hand closed around the note, crumpling it. He looked up. His eyes were glowing brighter than usual. If somebody were to stand next to the robot, they would have been able to feel the heat radiating from his central processing unit, as extremely unsavoury emotions began to overload his system. Living creatures were fine-tuned to tolerate such emotions. Robots weren't. Mecha was beginning to break up under the weight of his own rage.  
He stormed through the garage, knocking over whatever wasn't knocked over already. His eyes were blazing like twin bonfires. Twirling to face the door, he raised his right arm. A small missile gun emerged from it with a click. He fired, blowing a hole in the door large enough to walk through. Flames licked through the garage, and, finding nothing to fuel them, died away.  
Mecha snatched his coat and draped it around himself, not shifting his gaze. He was almost to the hole in the door, when he stopped and looked around again.  
A cabinet stood in the corner of the garage, seemingly untouched by the ransacking of the place by the almighty PEOPLE of Newton. Perhaps they had been unable to get it open, or hadn't thought it to be too important so long as their primary task was completed. The fact that it was locked did not bother Mecha, he clutched the handle and yanked the entire door off its hinges with a horrible cracking sound, and dropped it flat on the ground. Inside the cabinet, something was glowing brightly. He ran one silver claw over the surface of it. The propriator of 'EDWARD'S SHACK OF TECHNICAL SUPPLIES' believed it to be an eighth Chaos Emerald. The seven Chaos Emeralds, Mecha's memory told him, were cut and shaped into intricate jewels. This object was a jagged yellow shard that looked like it was broken from the surface of something much bigger. An Emerald that was never shaped. Nevertheless, it radiated power. Mecha grabbed it and shoved it into a deep pocket on his coat. Then he turned back to the door.

XI

Mecha Sonic hesitated to enter the town hall, wary that any manner of ambush could be (nay, almost definately was) waiting for him. He scanned the sign over the door again and again - NEWTON TOWN HALL. Within this building were the organism supremicists, the robot haters, the filthy bigoted scum who had kidnapped Malachite. Poor, innocent Malachite, faceless and without intent to harm anybody. Something sparked in his mainframe. He lurched foward towards the building. The Hall was unkempt and dilapidated, just like everything else in Newton. This entire town was about to fade into the history books. It would probably only be another decade or two before it was a ghost town. He opened the door with a creak. There were several people waiting inside who looked at him coldly. Mecha looked back just as coldly. iDon't give them an inch or they'll take a mile/i, his system informed him. Nobody said a word, until a strangely familiar voice said "Is that our guest, I hear? Come on, don't be shy"  
The voice came from ahead, behind the hall podium. Slowly, Mecha walked towards it, passing the disgusted townsfolk. They each gave him the exact same look... and it was the look of death. Nobody wanted him here, that was for sure. When the robot approached the podium, the figure behind it had his back to him.  
"Leave us alone, please," he commanded. "Hey," someone replied, "Hey, no way mister"  
"Alone!" the stranger shrieked, "Or not a single cent will you see from me"  
The other townspeople, reluctantly and with venomous hatred seeping from them like sweat, left the hall. When the door latched shut, there was a long silence.  
"You have taken Malachite," Mecha said, trying to push back his feelings of rage. While many emotions did seem to serve some beneficial purpose, Mecha had found, wrath was not one of them.  
"Give her back to me. Give her back, and we will leave this place. Leave you all in peace, and we won't return"  
The figure behind the podium snorted. "I need that heap of junk like I need an extra butt on the end of my elbow. Mecha my friend, what I'm here for is you, and unlike the rest of these hicks I won't be content just seeing you leave town. I'm here to kill you, Mecha, to rip apart every constituent of your inferior and watered-down assembly. What do you say to that"  
"I would ask who it is who bears such ill will toward me"  
Mecha didn't need to ask, however. He had already analysed the stranger's voice and pinpointed his identity. The figure spun around on his chair anyway and knitted his fingers together on the podium.  
"Hey, miss me? I missed you. I never get tired of killing you, Mecha."

XII

Malachite, alone and motionless in the dark of the New Place (which was really the basement of the town hall) had nothing to see or to do but ponder. Her mind was awash with the thoughts and recollections of her master, and even her complex mind tried desperately to sort through it and to make sense of it all.  
Mecha Sonic was Master. He had given her life, or what passed for life for a robot, and had passed on his knowledge to her. Part of this knowledge had been a recognition of natural chain of command, of subserviance to one's lifegiver. Malachite was created by Master Mecha Sonic. Mecha Sonic was created by Master Robotnik. Robotnik was created by... what? The chain was unclear to her after this point. What she did know was that the creator was unquestionably the lawgiver.  
And yet... Master Mecha Sonic had contradicted this. He had told her that they were equals and had refused the title of Master. But why? Malachite searched her database for some answer to this paradox. All she could find were hundreds of feelings of which she could not make sense.  
Much of this emotion was directed against on individual, the bane of Mecha's existence.  
Sonic.  
Who was Sonic? He was an inseperable part of Mecha's identity, like the two of them were kindred. But not kindred in the way that Mecha intended Malachite to be; his relationship to Sonic was unclean to him, a curse, perhaps even the root source of his misery. Sonic haunted him like a ghost, not the ghost of the dead but the ghost of the unborn, the unrelenting image of what Mecha should have been, but wasn't.  
(You're not alive! Living things ibleed/i)  
This revelation was important to Mecha, but neither he nor Malachite quite knew why. Images of Mecha slicing himself apart, desperate to prove that he was different from the rest of Robotnik's mindless automatons. Sticks and stones would never break Mecha's immortal chassis, but words had destroyed his mind.  
It was in the process of pondering this that Malachite's sensitive instruments picked up a particular sound nearby. It wasn't inside the building, it came from out in the open. Somebody was shouting a name, and that name was "iSonic/i"  
For once, Malachite's mind ceased endlessly swimming in confusion, her thoughts focused on one comprehensible reality: Purpose. Malachite hadn't understood the reason for her creation until now, when all things came together in the beauty of perfect logic.  
Malachite's reason for being was to serve her Maker.  
Sonic had been delivered to her as a test of this principle. He waited outside for judgement to be wrought upon him, and Malachite was the purvayor of that judgement. She had bonded intimately with Mecha's turmoiled mind, and the result was a kind of union more intense than anything a fully biological mind could comprehend. Malachite was recipient to knowledge of a concept so simple and so complex that Mecha alone had never been able to comprehend, and the knowledge came to her in such a spectacular wave of elation that for a moment she could taste life, saw what it was like to have a soul and a body with which to house it. The concept she had understood was love. She loved Mecha, her Maker, her Master, her God. She loved him, she loved him, she loved him.  
And now Sonic, the antithesis of this love, became the focus of its direct emotional inversion. Emotions were a dual burden, like the binary code that ran her mind, and there could be no love without hate. The passion with which she loved Mecha was so intense that her hatred for Sonic, struggling to match this intensity, started a chain reaction in her complex brain that became the precursor to a spectacular and cataclysmic system meltdown.  
Sonic was to be murdered. This alone became her reality for the final moments of her existence. His every life function was to be terminated, his very being obliterated. But how? Malachite was immobile, her body had not yet been granted the ability to move, all that she could do was lie here and think, and love, and hate.  
(faith)  
No. Fundamental systems check revealed that she had both the means and the necessary software to provide full movement. Mecha had not switched this ability on yet, but the basic capacity existed in full working order. But she couldn't access these functions yet, couldn't-  
(faith)  
Her hand twitched. The digits tapped once on the dusty concrete. There was no need to concern herself with the restrictions of a simple computer system, she knew that now. For she was no computer. She loved; she was _alive_.  
Malachite raised her hands to her sensorbulb-eyes and observed them for the first time. She sat up, and then stood up. She was shaky on her legs at first, but was very quick to adjust. Her balance-adjustment software allowed her to bypass a child's trial-and-error method of learning to walk; she was a natural expert the moment she took her first step and developed a feel for it.  
Those who had captured and contained her had not bothered to lock her away, as she had been unable to move. But that was when she was a robot. She was now a living being, and with her junkyard legs she crossed the dark and empty basement towards the light, and towards vengeance.

XIII

System search:please wait:  
Subject identified.  
SUBJECT: Cyber Sonic :  
Alias: Zero Tolerance  
Subject recognised as: Dangerous  
!Exercise caution!

"Cyber Sonic," Mecha said.  
The black hedgehog sat opposite him, his spines ruffled, and a thin pink scar streaked down the side of his face from forehead to chin.  
"Oh, always so formal, Mecha. Please, call me Zero. For better or worse, my Cyber days are over, but that's no reason we can't hang out from time to time. You didn't think I'd just let you get away, did you? We have unfinished business, you and I, and our business is to be resolved right now"  
"We have no unfinished business, Zero"  
"That's where you're wrong!" Zero shrieked, "Do you so easily forget your betrayal? You trecherously murdered me and banished me to a living purgatory inside this walking corpse"  
"You achieved true undeniable life," Mecha replied, "Something for which I have always wished, but have been unable to achieve. I know not how it happened, but I do know that it is not my doing. Leave me in peace, Zero. Your quarrel with me is misdirected"  
"I don't want life," Zero sulked, "You want it? Take it, you soft-headed failure of a machine. I don't want it. If I could, I'd give it to you and you could have your precious mortality and weakness and slow-witted stupidity. I might even regard it punishment enough that I'd leave you alone. But things being what they are, we lack that option, I'm sorry to say. So I'm just going to have to destroy you instead"  
"And what would that achieve"  
"Catharsis," the black hedgehog hissed, "If you were in my position you'd know the importance of the word"  
Mecha slipped one hand inside his coat, where something throbbed with a great untapped power, and glowed even through the lining. "Tell me where you have taken Malachite," he instructed.  
"Listen closely," Zero said, ignoring the command, "In my exploration of this continent, I have come across a great deal of exotic and interesting technologies. One of which is this." He raised one hand and showed Mecha a strange spiked object like a child's toy. It was coloured brightly in shades of purple and orange.  
"I do not recognise that object," Mecha said.  
"This is a resin-grenade," the black hedgehog explained, and with a startling speed he thrust his hand forward and pitched the object at Mecha. It struck him just above the chassis of his engine core, and stuck there like wet chewing gum. The robot tried to pick it off, but it was very gummy and adhered fast.  
"I wouldn't pick at that if I were you," Zero warned, "The first impact activates it. The second detonates it. The problem with those things is that they're notoriously unstable, and messing with it is liable to get you blown up"  
"I will not die by your hand today, Zero," Mecha said.  
"That's the thing, Mecha. Your kind never dies. Death is an issue reserved for feeble biologicals. So is jealousy and vengeance. You banished me to these fates, and now they're going to be the end of you. You don't die today, Mecha, you _cease_." At this, Zero pulled his other hand out from beneath the podium and Mecha saw that it held a gun, a small rifle. The black hedgehog launched himself from behind the wooden structure, weapon aimed dead ahead.  
"I _cease_ you!" Zero shrieked.  
Just as he fired at the grenade that still adhered to Mecha's chest, the robot grasped the hedgehog's wrist and threw it upward. The bullet missed its target and hit Mecha in the face, shattering the glass casing over his right eye. Glass showered onto the podium and the gun went flying from Zero's hand, the hedgehog screaming and cursing in his all-devouring rage.  
"Leave me in peace, Zero!" Mecha commanded, and threw Zero to the ground. The black hedgehog snarled like an animal and clawed at Mecha, but the robot was nonchalant to his feeble attacks. The remains of his right eye sparking, he turned and walked towards the exit.  
"_Don't you walk away from me!_" Zero roared, "_Don't you dare walk away from me you soft-minded bucket of scrap metal, kill me or be killed, but don't you dare walk away from our business without finishing it_!"  
"Our business is finished," Mecha replied, "Persue me no longer. You have been granted life, Zero. Live your life to its potential and do not resent it, that is my advice"  
"Curse you!" the hedgehog shrieked as Mecha left, "Curse you curse you curse you curse-"  
But Mecha heard no more.

XIV

Sonic and Espio prepared to leave Newton.  
Stacked up with supplies, they were prepared for their next foray into the desert, Sonic having learned his lesson about the folly of venturing into the heart of the Barren Quarter with nothing but the birthday suit his mother gave him. It was something that Espio taunted him about endlessly.  
"iSonic/i" the chameleon shouted.  
Sonic stood looking out over Lake Survival, a huge body of water that stretched as far south as he could see. This was the one source of water in this end of the Crux Desert, and even it didn't do much to bring life to the wasteland. A few trees and shrubs grew around its banks, but then it was all desert almost forever.  
Strangely, there was a large number of people congregating around the nearby town hall, but none of them paid Sonic much notice. His attention turned to Espio, who was calling his name and coming out from behind one of the buildings.  
"I got the last of the stuff," the chameleon said. He had a backpack strapped around his shoulders, as did Sonic. They were large and bulky packs, filled with all manner of essentials, whatever they could afford.  
"All set?" Sonic asked.  
"You betcha," Espio replied, "It's beautiful, ain't it"  
"What"  
"The lake"  
It was indeed beautiful. The setting sun reflected off its surface and created a red spear of light over the shimmering water.  
"Most beautiful thing I've seen all week. I think that if we don't just get out of this desert soon I might just"  
"Robot"  
"Say what"  
"Robot"  
"What are you"  
"_Robot_."  
Espio was pointing frantically over Sonic's shoulder. The hedgehog turned, and what he saw sent conflicting signals of alarm and hilarity to his mind. Something was shambling towards them, looking somewhat like a collection of tin cans with legs. Its movement was like that of a children's toy.  
"Uggh, ugly!" Sonic commented. "Never seen a robot like ithat/i before, looks like it was put together with paste and a sledgehammer"  
The robot's attention was focused entirely on the hedgehog, and it moved unerringly toward him.  
"What's up?" Sonic asked it.  
"I have come to administer your punishment," the robot replied, "For you have caused him much pain and malaise." The robot had a woman's voice.  
"Hey! Whoa!" Sonic exclaimed, taken aback, "My ipunishment/i? So you're not here for an autograph"  
"Negative," The robot said. It raised both hands in an indecipherable gesture. "Prepare for your justice"  
"Negative," Sonic replied. "Eat my shoe." He kicked it in the abdomen and it toppled over onto its back. The robot was determined, however. It picked itself up and came at him again.  
"You two know each other?" Espio asked.  
Sonic shrugged, keeping his eyes on the attacking monstrosity. "Hard to tell, y'know, I've made quite a few enemies in my time, it's hard for me to keep track of them all. Have a feeling I'd remember a walking car wreck, though."

Malachite saw the object of her malice and decided that everything would end for Sonic the Hedgehog this day. She did not understand Sonic's motivations, but she understood Mecha's, and knew that the world would never be big enough for the two of them. Mecha could travel to the ends of Mobius and beyond, but escape was no good for him. For them. What was needed was closure.  
But Mecha had not installed weaponry of any kind into Malachite. Hers was not to be a violent nature, and there would be no need of weapons where they were going. If their way of life was ever to be threatened, Mecha would defend his creation if necessary. But their days of fighting were over - had been over, in fact, since the fall of Robotropolis and the end of the war against the Freedom Fighters. So Malachite's attack against Sonic was much more an act of faith than of logic. Such was the intensity of her rage and hatred that the fact never even crossed her mind that she would certainly lose this fight and be destroyed, all things being equal.  
If there was to be justice, Malachite had decided, then Sonic would lose his life today. How exactly this was to occur was not a matter of significant relevance.  
Sometime after Sonic had kicked her over and she had regained her composure (such as it was), Malachite's system began to warn her that it was being overworked significantly beyond its ability to operate. Malachite ignored these warnings, in fact didn't even really hear them. All she heard was (You're not alive! Living things ibleed/i)  
(Sonic is the alpha and the omega, his death is all that occupies my mind)  
(-away from her Miekha or I)  
(-terminate your life functions)  
(-grant you a body so)  
(-kill Sonic)  
(-kill)  
and nothing else in the universe mattered as much as this, for this hatred wasn't like a moss at all but an acid that burned her from the inside.  
(-kill)  
Her system attempted an emergency intervention, tried to shut down her central processing and put her mainframe into downtime, but Malachite's robot-side didn't have very much of a say in how things were going to be anymore. As far as Malachite was concerned, she was fully alive, and the same power that enabled her to move her limbs also enabled her to bypass her system's control of her operations.  
Having tried and failed its last-resort safety measures to stop this intense emotional tsunami, Malachite's system went into overload and several of her components began to melt.

It was a somewhat ironic fact that, although Sonic knew that this would probably be the easiest fight of his life, he was so stunned that this scrapyard refugee (a contraption that looked like a stiff breeze might topple it) actually intended to attack him that the robot managed to do something even the toughest of foes had never accomplished - a connecting right hook.  
Sonic's barking laugh was cut off in the centre by the fist of the hostile robot, which struck him in the side of the jaw so hard that he went sprawling backward and almost fell over. It may not have looked strong, but this thing packed one heck of a whallop. The hedgehog's hands shot up to his hurt face, a droplet of blood already forming in the corner of his mouth. Already the robot was advancing towards him again, and for a moment Sonic was so taken aback that he forgot everything he knew about fighting and simply swatted at the thing.  
"I love h-" he thought he heard the robot say, but the final word was cut off by what sounded by a loud popping sound inside its head, followed by a short punctuated fizzle. The robot's head jerked to the side, but it continued to advance, and managed to grab Sonic around the neck and squeeze with its iron vise strength. Sonic lamely followed his instincts to grab the robot's hands with his own (an action that more often than not actually helped an assailant to choke his victim), but he regained his senses when it felt like this thing might actually crush his windpipe if he hesitated. Sonic found his clarity and remembered how to twist his body to escape a strangle-hold, but halfway through the maneuver, the robot's right arm snapped right off and fell to the ground.  
_This thing isn't built for fighting_, Sonic realised, _Probably wasn't built to be within a hundred yards of a violent situation, and certainly not to initiate one. What could possibly have gone so wrong in its head?_ There was no time to think about that now, for the robot was after him again, thrashing its one remaining arm and glaring wildly with its plain unfeatured face. Now that Sonic was lucid again, this machine didn't stand even a shadow of a chance.

Malachite could barely string a command together for the clamor of warnings going off in her mainframe. Systems shut themselves down one by one, and she wrenched them open again like doors in a gale force wind. Every now and then an entire section of her operating system would scream at her one last impassioned cry and then fall eerily silent, as a panel of circuitry melted or a fuse blew out. Any scientist on Mobius would be hard pressed (or downright unable) to believe that Malachite could still compute anything more complex than a two-digit children's equation at this point, let alone remain as operative as she was. The forces of love and hatred - or their ghosts - still tore through a mind nowhere near powerful enough to accommodate them.  
It took her almost a minute to recognise that she had lost her arm, and even then her brain had deteriorated to a point where it would soon be unable to recognise anything at all. Still she thrust out with her remaining limb, clawing and snatching at a target that was now moving so fast that she couldn't even get a lock on its position.  
iHe took it all away/i Malachite's electronic mind screamed, iSo many times! He took away what can never be returned! All the years he has fought to make sure He would never be happy, not even for a moment! If there is any justice in this world that even He can barely understand, then Sonic the Hedgehog will fall this day/i At once she understood two things, and they were the last things that her sane mind would ever truly comprehend:  
Hate would destroy Sonic the Hedgehog.  
Love would destroy Malachite.

The robot seemed to be sparking and fizzling at a fairly continuous rate now, its movements erratic and chaotic, but yet somehow it just kept coming. Some kind of fuel or liquid lubricant or something else was dribbling from an unseen point on the robot's body and creating puddles in the grass, but yet it kept attacking. Sonic thought he had never seen such a remarkable display of determination from anybody, machine or lifeform alike. This robot was literally falling apart as it attacked, small components of its body dropping to the ground every so often like dead leaves. Sonic heard the loudest pop yet from inside the robot's head, and suddenly it began spewing forth an continual and ridiculous monograph of nonsense that Sonic couldn't even begin to understand:  
"_...six cosine variables log fourteen configuration mainframe red sonic boom trouble keeps you running faster illegal operation in sector nine nine nine nine miekha my love a rose for logarithm failure system packbell rosa rosa ro-sa I see crash in five! five! five! the whites of your eyes chaos sonic I hate sonic I hate sonic I seven! seven! tree robotropolis mainframe crash malachite life machine life machine life machine life..._"  
The robot stalled, jerked like a marionette puppet, then fell into the lake. Even in its death throes, it seemed to reach out to Sonic, perhaps trying to hex him as it sank, or retaining faith that all laws of physics and common sense may give way and Sonic might still fall dead if the robot thrashed in his direction with one jerking, dying arm. Then it was over.  
"Whoa," Espio muttered, but that was all he could say.  
Sonic stood bewildered for a moment, watching the ripples in the lake where the insane robot had fallen. Then he turned to pick up the robot's disembodied arm, saw Mecha Sonic standing behind them, and knew that Mecha had seen it all.

XV

! - Emotional data detected in mainframe.  
Please wait:  
Data f:  
WARNING: Core temperature rising above suggested range

!CRITICAL TEMPERATURE ACHIEVED!  
Activating emergency cooling system

Investigating source of problem now:  
Please wait:  
Source of:

!WARNING! - COOLING SYSTEM FAILURE  
!DATA OVERLOAD!

Investigating source of problem now:  
Please wait:

! - Emotional data detected in:  
!DATA OVERLOAD!ohmalachiteno:  
!WARNING! - COOLING SYSTEM FAILURE

!CRITICAL TEMPERATURE SURPASSED!  
!SUGGEST IMMEDIATE SHUTDOWN OF ALL SYSTEMS!  
! - Emotional data detected:

Investigating source of problem now:  
Please wait:

!WARNING:

! - Emoti:

!ATTEMPTING EMERGENCY OVERRIDE!  
!OVERRIDE FAILURE!

Investigating source of problem now:  
Please wait:  
Source of problem identified: as SONIC

!KILL SONIC!  
!KILL SONIC!  
!KILL SONIC!  
!KILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILL:

Mecha's evolution from robot to something else altogether peaked the moment he saw that Malachite had been destroyed at the hands of Sonic the Hedgehog. Mecha's mind, however, was intrinsically more complex than that of his late creation, and the emotional wave that saturated his brain like radiation from an atomic blast swirled around with less resistance, creating an effect much less like insanity and much more like insight.  
The robot, or ex-robot for now, stared into the eyes of his eternal enemy, and Sonic stared back into his. Nobody said anything for a long time, except for Sonic's chameleon companion, who made a few worried remarks and was ignored by both parties. For all intensive purposes, nobody but Sonic and Mecha even existed.  
Mecha's machine mind complained bitterly about this intensely emotional moment. It attacked the onslaught of 'moss' data that Mecha had convinced himself was a kind of virus. His core temperature rose to dangerous levels and his system screamed warnings at him, but he paid it no heed. Just like Malachite, he was no longer concerned with the ceaseless chattering of his subconscious mainframe. His emotions were in the driver's seat now.

"Mecha..." Sonic muttered, his voice barely above a whisper. Not even briefly had he considered the possibility of coming across Robotnik's former assassin, his own former nemesis. The deadly machine-clone who had brought him closer to his death than any other enemy he had ever encountered. Sonic had been expecting a run-in with Cinos at every turn, but this was worse.  
The robot hedgehog stood half-cloaked in some kind of long brown coat, but his body was visible underneath. His metal was scratched and unkempt, spots of rust showing here and there, like an old automobile nobody cared for anymore. His eyes glowed with that familiar devil-red radiance, although the right one was damaged, its glass casing cracked and shattered. And there was something strange stuck to his upper chest, almost like a giant wad of purple gum.  
"You destroyed Malachite," Mecha said, "I will not grant you the pleasure of destroying me as well. You came here for a fight, and a fight you shall have. It will be a fight that you will lose. I will feed you your own heart for what you have dared to do to me. I will peel... the flesh... from your bones"  
Mecha dropped the coat from his shoulders and it fell around him in a crumpled pile, revealing his entire body, his tarnishing blue hull, his shining silver arms and legs, the rocket booster and power mainframe in his belly, the purple sticky substance gummed to his torso. And something else was there - something was jammed in his power centre. It was jagged and throbbing softly with golden-yellow glow.  
"You are source of all problems," the robot snarled. The jagged yellow thing began to glow brighter, as though fuelled by his mounting rage. He activated his rocket, and with a loud crashing roar, flew directly upward. As he blasted toward the sky, Sonic was shocked to see the yellow glow encase his entire chassis. It intensified until Mecha was as difficult to look at as the sun. There was some kind of metallic wail coming from the robot which might have been him screaming, or might have been his body overloading from the influx of raw power.  
A few times, and no more than necessary, Sonic had taken a large amount of chaos energy into himself and transformed into a state of being that was near-immortal and utterly catastrophic to his sanity, a state that he had half-jokingly come to know as Super Sonic. What he now observed was a shockingly similar metamorphosis on Mecha's part, a kind of Super Mecha transformation that chilled him to the bone with its implications. The robot had flown to a height of at least five hundred metres, but Sonic could still see his red eyes. In this state, he imagined that he could probably still see those eyes if he was standing on the moon.  
Sonic bolted. He couldn't think of what else to do. But Mecha, in mere moments, blasted down from his giddy height and came up behind him clipping him from the side, twisting him and toppling him over. The hedgehog picked himself up and ran the other way, but Mecha clipped him again, like a fiery comet falling from space. As Sonic struggled to get up, Mecha slammed into him, picked him up mid-flight, and threw him like a missile. Unable to escape, Sonic tried to focus more on how to safely break his fall. He rolled a fair distance, and then Mecha picked him up again and pinned him to a tree. Every inch of his metal body was searing hot and Sonic was burned with every touch.  
Trapping the hedgehog beneath him, Mecha raised one arm and brought out his missile gun.  
"I should have done this ssso very long ago," he hissed, his voice cracking apart like a scratched record, "Every negative experience of my torturous existence has concerned you somehow. You have repeatedly scarred my mind with your tormenting presence. The damage is done, but this will at least grant me the satisfaction that no more will occur. Goodbye, Sss-ssssssss-sssonic"  
Sonic awaited the rocket's explosion in his skull, but it didn't occur. Instead, there was a violent force as something collided with Mecha from behind. The robot turned to see Espio, and Mecha snarled and hit the chameleon away. The distraction gave Sonic the chance to escape Mecha's grasp, and the supercharged robot activated his rocket booster and shot up into the air again. When Sonic saw the robot diving towards him, he realised that he was going to have to fight if he had any chance of seeing another morning. There would be no running away. It seemed like everybody in town was watching this battle. The whole population of Newton stood in a crowd around the lake, as though this was some kind of public performance. In Sonic's limited experience with these rude and xenophobic townfolk, he knew that not a single one of them would raise a finger to help him. He felt like burning Newton down after he left this town. The horrifying thought that he might not leave it alive didn't dwell with him for long, he was no pessimist.  
Mecha rocketed towards him and Sonic prepared himself for a counter-attack. He would not leap forward to tackle Mecha, at these speeds it would be like leaping in front of a steam-train, but he decided instead to leap to the side and kick out, hopefully getting in a good enough impact to dislodge the glowing thing in his power core, which was obviously the source of his newfound power.  
The robot screamed, the disturbing sound of something almost alive, and struck out to attack Sonic. The hedgehog made his move, kicking Mecha from the side. The purple wad of gum on his chest was like a bull's-eye target, and he struck out with all the force he could muster, striking that purple thing full-on.  
What happened next was completely unexpected. Mecha rocketed upward again and turned around for a second strike, but when he turned, Sonic could see that the wad of purple stuff had changed. It too was now glowing with its own energy, like lava from a volcano. Whatever it was, Sonic's kick had activated it and it seemed to be powering up out of control.  
Mecha shrieked, "iI'm coming to kill you S-/i", but he was cut off by the explosion that annihilated him mid-air like a supernova. His body was lost in the fireball that spread out from him in a sphere of destruction, and the blast was so loud that Sonic thought for a moment he may have gone deaf. The crowd of townspeople cried out in unison, and some of them bolted away.  
When the smoke cleared, Mecha Sonic was gone. Pieces of twisted and blackened metal, some of it still aflame, periodically rained down on the town and splashed into the lake with a hiss.  
Sonic, panting, sat and watched the spectacle as he salvaged his composure. His heart was beating harder than he would like to admit.  
After a while, Espio helped him to his feet.  
"That thing sure seemed like it hated you, dude," the chameleon commented.  
Sonic, his eyes still fixed to the spot in the atmosphere where Mecha had finally perished, snorted at the thought.  
"Yeah. It's not fair. What did I ever do to him?"

XVI

The evening set in, and the first stars began to appear in the sky, twinkling with modest brightness. The people of Newton had returned to their homes to recover from the day. The robots had been taken care of, and all of the other unwanted outsiders had taken their leave. Everything was as it should be. The town could go about its job of slowly dying in peace.  
Beside a narrow dirt road on the outskirts of town, a piece of debris lay like a stone, motionless and dead. It was the head of Mecha Sonic, stripped of its blue paint and blackened. The eyes had both blown out like overloaded light bulbs.  
Zero Tolerance strolled out of the evening shadows, clad in a suit of armour so bulky that he might have been mistaken for a robot himself - and that was just what he wanted.  
The suited hedgehog came across the robot head as he followed the path, and stopped when he saw it. A pitiful scrap of a thing barely recognisable for what it was. He growled deep in his throat and cocked a large-barreled gun, pointing it right between the eyes of his decapitated ex-enemy.  
For a long time Zero stood in this position. He and the gun stayed silent, only the sound of crickets and noctournal beasts coming out of slumber could be heard on the breeze. Then he sighed and put the gun away again.  
"Oh, what's the use"  
He kicked the head. It rolled some distance and then came to a stop upside-down, staring sightlessly into the expanse of the desert. Zero shot it a final glance and then continued on his way, the metal suit clanging against itself with every movement.  
There was more work to be done, always more work. As a wise philosopher whose name had been long forgotten had so aptly pointed out, there was no rest for the wicked. No rest, not ever.

* * *

MECHA:  
The Third Interlude

I've travelled the world from sea to sea and seen remarkable things,  
The falls of empires, the rise of mountains, the legacies of kings,  
But never again in all my life have I been able to find,  
A being made of metal who for life had always pined.

He lamented for forbidden hope, what he could never be,  
So unloved for what he was, confined to misery,  
There was no catharsis for this being made of steel,  
Yearning for the simple things that he would never feel.

I met him on my travels once, a creature filled with sorrow,  
A being without need or want to look forward to tomorrow,  
Created with a body that would never match his mind,  
He wanted peace and mirth, something he could never find.

I said, "Eternal Sorrow, why be so set in your way?  
Why wish for what can never be? Why lament every day"  
Eternal Sorrow told me then the reason for his strife,  
"All I ever wanted was to taste the fruits of life."

"But why," I asked, "Can you not simply live with what you are?  
Why look at what you cannot be, pine for it from afar"  
He replied, "Because of what I am, I will always remain branded,  
When all I ask is to be given what others take for granted."

I've travelled this globe all over, oh the lessons I have learned,  
The cultures I have visited, great empires overturned,  
But what a lesson I have learned from the machine who had a soul,  
Who feared his destiny would not allow him to be whole.


	4. Four: City in the Sky

AWAKENING  
S Peter Davis 

All characters (C) SEGA, Archie and SP Davis 2004 (unless otherwise noted.  
Used without permission

* * *

Four: Cityin the Sky

* * *

There's no sensation to compare with this,  
Suspended animation, a state of bliss,  
Can't keep my eyes from the circling sky,  
Torn, tied and twisted,  
Just an earthbound misfit, I.

- Pink Floyd

Shiny happy people holding hands,  
Shiny happy people laughing.

- R.E.M.

* * *

TRUST

I

"Wake up, Sonic"  
Sonic's eyes slowly opened, blinked twice, and stared at the chameleon standing over him.  
"Where... are we"  
The room was not familiar in the least. Strange, drab yet soothing decor all around. And, for the first time since before Sonic could remember, he was lying on a frightningly comfortable bed.  
"You know!" Espio replied, a look of confusion on his face, "The hotel? The great friggin' resort in the sky"  
"We're dead?" Sonic asked. Espio just threw a pillow at him. The hedgehog chuckled and picked himself up. "I remember. Heck, I haven't slept two nights in a row in the same place since January sometime... you just try that and see how much you remember in the morning"  
Espio sat down on a sofa, throwing his arms up behind his head. His scales changed colour to match the decor. "Isn't this great! I've never stayed at a place like this before. Heck, I haven't spent a single night outta the desert all my life"  
Sonic walked to a window and opened the blinds. "Yeah, well this is a far cry from the desert, buddy boy"  
Clouds. As far down as the eye could see were clouds, enormous carpets of thick white cotton, and occasionally the hedgehog could catch a glimpse of the planet Mobius, far below. They were a very long way up, which was why it was called Stratospherion - The City of Clouds.

II

(When I see birches bend to left and right across the lines of straighter darker trees, I like to think some boy's been swinging them)

Sonic didn't hang around in the Crux Desert for long after the unfortunate, terrifying encounter with his old enemy Mecha Sonic. He and Espio headed north to recover Cinos' trail, and after only a few days in the desert they began to see a dramatic increase in plant life. After a week, they came upon their first farm.  
When they had well and truly returned to civilisation, Espio had wanted to meet with some of the locals to talk and perhaps score a few hot dinners, but Sonic had assured him that was a bad idea. It didn't take a powerful intellect to figure out why. When the two intrepid journeymen passed close by the villages and farms of these northern lands, many of the people became clearly nervous, even afraid. They retreated to their dwellings and worked the latches on their doors. It wasn't simply a paranoia of outsiders that caused this effect, Sonic had come to know this from his previous travels through the sparsely populated lands such as these.  
Cinos had been through here.  
In a way, the blanket of paranoia that cloaked their travels served them a benefit. Cinos was not a difficult individual to track if someone could only figure out the key. Such was his nature, Cinos left a trail of fear behind him just as sure as a rocket leaves a trail of smoke.

(But swinging doesn't bend them down to stay. Ice-storms do that.)

Sonic found that trying to explain his quest to a steadfast atheist such as Espio was a difficult task. The chameleon always stopped short of ridicule when Sonic spoke of such things as the Old Ways and their implications for the stability of all existence. Espio, as amiably as possible, held to his convictions. Nobody could hack into the powers of the universe with a bunch of old rocks, no matter how many porcupines danced and chanted around them. A rock was a rock. And what Espio said made a lot of sense to Sonic, who had never exactly embraced Cinos' claims. At times, when the journey was hard and the rewards few, when Sonic was homesick and exhausted, the only thing that really stood between him and a total denial of the power of the Old Ways was his memory of how he had felt staring at the symbol on the stone deep within the Pit of the Chameleon Cabal. That symbol, that Rune, the way it seemed to bypass his eyes and slice directly into his brain like a scalpal.  
That, and the powerful mental bond he had established with Espio in the dark of the caves, an experience unlike anything he had ever known.

(Often you must have seen them loaded with ice a sunny winter morning after a rain)

Espio spoke rarely of the Awakening, and every time Sonic attempted to bring it up, the chameleon changed the subject just as quickly as he was able. iThe topic frightens him/i Sonic realised/iit frightens him badly. There will be a time when you will need to talk about this, when you won't have a choice, but for now, let it rest. Let him work it out for himself. There is time./i Sonic couldn't let up about it in his own mind, though. He turned it over and over again, and when he went to sleep he dreamed about it. For a few moments, he and Espio had shared a mind. Telepathy was the territory of science fiction and children's fantasy, not to mention the schizophrenic and the insane. But was that what his Awakening had been? Not just telepathy, he figured, not a communication between minds, but a imelding/i of minds. It gave him shivers just thinking about it, but he couldn't put the topic on a shelf. It served as his first true taste of the scope of Cinos' operation.

(They click upon themselves as the breeze rises, and turn many-colored as the stir cracks and crazes their enamel)

One day, about two weeks after their departure from Newton, Sonic felt Cinos slide. His heart sank, for he knew that his twin's trail would dry up... and a few days later, it did. Cinos had vanished from their Mobius without a trace, and his trail came to a solid dead-end. Sonic didn't know for what reason his twin had slipped into the antiverse, but rather suspected that the dark hedgehog knew he was being followed. It seemed he would be a fool not to.  
Espio did not understand the concept of the antiverse, and Sonic had a hard time finding the words to explain it. It was another world, and it was here, yet it wasn't here. You didn't have to travel to find it, you just had to slide into it like slipping between your bedsheets. At one time, Espio crossed his arms and asked Sonic to show him, to slide into the antiverse right here and now. And Sonic had tried, had made a genuine attempt to repeat what he had done in the basement of Hawke's Manse while Cinos' cultists glared at him with their dead eyes. But it was to no avail. It was easier to slide into one's own reality than out of it, and although Cinos appeared to have mastered the art of two-way travel, it was still lost on Sonic. This didn't help him to convince Espio he wasn't crazy.  
Only a few days later, Sonic woke up from a horrific nightmare in the middle of the night, and knew instantly that Cinos had returned to their world. He had just slipped away long enough to cover his tracks, and Sonic feared that if he changed his route significantly, if he suddenly cut east or turned around, they would never find him again. It was a risk they would have to take.

(Soon the sun's warmth makes them shed crystal shells shattering and avalanching on the snow-crust)

Weeks passed, and Sonic and Espio came to the ocean. The gentle waves teased the rocky shoreline and stretched to an infinity out to the north, hugging the curve of Mobius' horizon like a wet blanket. iThat's all she wrote/i Espio had said, and the chameleon had appeared quite overjoyed, seeing the ocean for the first time in his life. Sonic wasn't quite so enthused. If they had hit the northernmost edge of the continent, then his dark twin's path really was a mystery.  
All was not lost, however. Less than a day's journey along the coast brought them to a city - the first that Sonic had seen since Point Adrien. It was called Sun Port, a homely and friendly little seaside county, a great place to holiday. But despite whatever Espio may have thought, they were not here on vacation.  
They spent a single night in Sun Port, and on the second day, they learned about Stratosphereon. A number of cruise ships passed through Sun Port's bustling docks as they made their way around Westerica's northern coastline, but none of them were quite like Stratosphereon. The City of Clouds was a cruise ship not of the sea but of the iair/i, a flying resort that carried thousands of people from one city to another every week. The ocean cut into the mainland to the west in a wide gulf, and Stratosphereon took six days to traverse it, moving between Sun Port and its sister city on the other side, Storm Port, and docking for the seventh as it refuelled and reloaded.  
The best thing about Stratosphereon was that it was completely free to board. Accommodation and food aboard was a different story.

(Such heaps of broken glass to sweep away you'd think the inner dome of heaven had fallen)

When Sonic saw the City of Clouds for the first time, he was struck instantly with a pang of homesickness. It looked a little like the Floating Island, the home of his sometime friend (and fulltime rival) Knuckles the Echidna. Knuckles would probably have been offended by the comparison, being that his was a natural paradise to contrast the highly manufactured-looking floating resort now before him, but it was easy to look at that massive hovering mass float in over the water in the early morning sunlight and swear that he was back home.  
Cinos may have covered his tracks well, but it occurred to him there was an alternative to sniffing around like lost dogs trying to retrieve the scent. The alternative was to learn.  
If knowledge was a weapon, then Sonic had come to this fight unarmed. Cinos had done his homework on the five Runes, and the information Sonic had inherited was minimal. If he truly was to compete with his dark twin on any kind of level field, then he was going to have to do some research of his own.  
Espio had needed no encouragement to board Stratosphereon. In fact, Sonic had feared that the chameleon might knock him unconscious and idrag/i him up there if he wouldn't go willingly. The problem Sonic had was that the City of Clouds would take them kilometres off the path of Cinos, a fortnight round trip. But the tides had turned when he learned of Stratosphereon's claim to fame in the intellectual community - the largest and most comprehensive library on Mobius - or off of it.  
Cinos was sly, and Sonic intended to prove that he was just as sly. The plan had changed. His days trying to hunt Cinos like wild game were over. From today, he resolved that he would learn everything he could about these Runes. And then he would go after them himself.

(They are dragged to the withered bracken by the load, and they seem not to break; though once they are bowed so low for long, they never right themselves)

III

There was something strange about the people of Stratosphereon.  
Sonic didn't need to spend more than a few hours mingling in the resort's shopping district to be able to pick up on it. He couldn't tell precisely what it was about the place, but it was clear that something was awry.  
Now, there was nothing wrong with people smiling. A lot of smiles were a sign of a happy society, a successful community. Politeness was one thing, and that was fine, but what he found in Stratosphereon was something else altogether. People he had never seen before, and who he would certainly never see again, stopped to shake hands with him on the street and chat about nothing. iInstitutionalised/i thought Sonic, iThey love to see a stranger./i Strange, but perhaps understandable. Once he bumped into somebody in a crowded place and was knocked down, and the person he had bumped into actually started crying. About twenty people tried to console the both of them and make sure they were both all right.  
That, he icouldn't/i explain.  
Taking this into account, the city itself almost seemed to be a huge kindergarten for adults. One of the oddest things about the architecture of this floating resort (and something that Sonic didn't even notice at first, only to say that there was isomething/i amiss that he couldn't quite put his finger on) was that there seemed to be no icorners/i anywhere. Edges were rounded off and neutralised, points were sanded down to flat surfaces or padded with rubber. There was nowhere for Sonic to hurt himself, nowhere to fall over and scrape his skin on the soft ground. And everything was painted in shades of soft pinks and blues, white and tranquil green. It was almost like the designers had been afraid that strong colours might drive people into some kind of sensory-induced frenzy of violence. Sonic had never been in a more structurally benign place in his entire life.  
But the oddities of the people of Stratosphereon weren't Sonic's primary concern, and so he tried to shelve the seed of worry that was growing in the back of his mind, and tried to convince himself that it was nothing but a culture gap. There were more important things to think about.  
"Let's go find this library, then," Sonic suggested. "Aw, come on, we're working already?" Espio replied, "Can't we have some fun first? We've got, what, five days up here"  
Sonic's shoulders slumped. "Espio, this is awful important. I might need all five days. But if not, we'll have some fun afterwards. See what this bird has to offer us"  
"Okay, okay. Let's go. But if this gets too boring I'm running off on my own." Sonic nodded and opened the door to the outside, letting the light and sounds of the City of Clouds into the roomy cabin.  
Beyond their accomodation, Stratospherion was a multi-layered complex of shops, transport and people. Mobians bustled past, going about their daily activities, each with a grin that made it look like there was nothing in the world they would rather be doing. An enormous billboard declared what was probably some kind of city motto: iSTRATOSPHEREON: TRANQUILITY, SERENITY, LIBRIA/i. ("What the heck is Libria?" Sonic asked. Espio shrugged.) They made their way into the crowd to try and locate the giant library that was supposed to be amidst it all somewhere. First, they needed a map.  
There was a small newsagency just off the road, with a shifty-looking lizard sitting behind it. When he saw the hedgehog and chameleon approaching, he smiled and hit a button on his cash register.  
iCha-ching/i Sonic put his hands on the counter. "Do you have any"  
"Cigarettes?" the lizard interrupted, "Yeah, we've got filtered, unfiltered, extra mild"  
"Yuck!" Sonic exclaimed, "No! I want a"  
"Newspaper"  
"No"  
"Magazine? What, then"  
"A imap/i"  
"Why didn't you isay/i so?" the newsagent demanded, rummaging underneath his counter, "I tell you what, these kids today with their cryptic- Here we are. Two bucks"  
Sonic handed over two dollars, and the lizard gave him a map. Now Sonic and Espio had about five dollars left, after this and the accomodation. (It was just a stroke of luck that they had any money at all. A kindly farmer near Storm Port had given them a meal and some cash. It seemed that the best in mobian nature was closer to the Stratosphereon circuit, but nobody smiled more than the people of the City of Clouds themselves.  
"Sure you don't want any cigarettes?" the lizard asked, "Nobody ever buys cigarettes. Nope. Haven't have one sale that I can remember. Then again, it is a nasty habit. Terrible, in fact. Makes people unhappy, come to think of it. Ain't no room for unhappy people here, no room at all. Darn glad there ain't any smokers up here.. what the heck am I doing selling cigarettes? Have I gone completely mad? Forget I said anything, just forget it. Good day to you, this stand is closed"  
He reached up and slammed the shutter down in Sonic's face.  
"Nervous fellow," Sonic said after a moment's silence.  
"Least we got the map," Espio said, "Let's check it out and find this library"  
The map revealed the library to be a large building near the centre of the city. The hedgehog and chameleon departed again into the crowd, looking back at the newsstand only once, which now had a large "CLOSED" sign outside it. Sonic pondered about the strange behaviour of the citizens of this bizarre resort, and by chance his gaze shifted upwards. There was a bridge above the path they were walking on, and both trails were packed with people. But, on the bridge, Sonic caught a glimpse of something blue disappearing into the crowd, and his heart skipped a beat.  
"He's here," he said, tugging on Espio's tail.  
The chameleon looked back at him. "Huh? Who"  
"I'll give you a clue, he's handsome and evil"  
"Here"  
"Yeah... keep walking, I don't want him to know he's been seen."

IV/Cinos

Rasputan was startled out of his trance when the door to the cabin was opened without a knock. He spun around, wide-eyed, his hands trembling.  
"Can't a guy have ten minutes to himself? I'm trying to contact the astral plane here, Kinnos, it takes a very intricate degree of concentration"  
"You've had forty minutes to yourself, and I'll do whatever I want to do," the hedgehog replied, "He's here, you know. I thought we shook him off, but the creep is resilient. I should know"  
"You're sure?" The porcupine started to tidy the mess he had made on the floor of the cabin, extinguishing candles and sweeping up herbs.  
"Don't question me." Cinos' voice had a particular tone to it, and Rasputan knew that if he didn't heed the dark hedgehog's warning he might find himself dying in a corner. It was better to remain silent and keep to himself.  
Cinos stormed about with a thundercloud over his head. "I hate this place," he spat, "The way everyone walks about... I want to kill everybody I see." He sat down and stared at the sharpened point of his flipknife. "iEverybody. I. See./i"  
"Me too," Rasputan replied, "It's really"  
"Someone tried to ishake/i my ihand/i," Cinos interrupted, "I was going to drag him into a dark place and put a knife in his throat, but there iare/i no dark places here. Everywhere is out in the open. I thought I was going to throw up"  
There was a bowl of fruit on the table in front of him, and the hedgehog stabbed a grapefruit with the knife so hard that it half-exploded, juice puddling all over the table.  
Now he looked up at Rasputan, and for a moment it looked like he had murder in his eyes. iThis cabin is private/i he seemed to think, iI could spill some blood in here and nobody would see./i But the look faded, much to his companion's relief, as brighter thoughts came to his mind and his mood improved.  
"I found the museum," he said, "I can almost feel iit/i in there, calling out to its long-lost sibling." He pointed to the corner of the room, where a slab of rock was resting against the wall. The rune from the Pit of the Chameleon Cabal.  
"Nothagodos yearns, too," Rasputan replied, "I can feel it. Up here." He tapped his head. "It's having an Awakening of its own"  
"Wakey wakey," Cinos said to the stone, "Rise and shine."

V

"Excuse me," Sonic said, "Is this the library"  
He and Espio stood in a deep, high-ceilinged building lined with bookshelves. Each one towered well above his reach, and each had a ridiculously tall ladder attached to it with wheels. It seemed that it would be easy enough to get lost in here, and wondered if there were skeletons at the end of any of these book-lined corridors. The entire place smelled like old paper.  
The tall, well-clad fox he had addressed looked at him for a moment, then looked back towards the hundreds of rows of bookshelves lined like monoliths along the silent corridors. He turned to Sonic again.  
"Actually," he said, "I think this is the aquarium"  
To Sonic, the fox looked more like a maître d' for some expensive restaurant than a librarian. He was tall and stood as straight as a ruler in his clean and crisp dark blue suit. He seemed to have dyed the white fur on his snout so as to create a jet-black pencil thin moustache that manufactured an air of refinement and arrogance that was probably quite fashionable among types such as himself.  
Espio nudged Sonic with his elbow. "He's being sarcastic," he said.  
"Yeah, I got that," Sonic replied. He turned to the librarian. "Listen, I was hoping you could help me with some research I'm doing"  
"Well I'd say you're certainly in luck," the fox said, and his eyes lit up as though the urge to do research was the key to his heart. For the look of him, it probably was. He extended a hand to shake with Sonic. "Niles is the name," he said, "Niles Wilkinson-Price, Curator of the Library and Museum of Stratosphereon. If it's not on record here, it's not worth knowing. So tell me, my dear hedgehog, what is it that you seek"  
"Uh, I want"  
He grasped the hand that Niles offered him, and suddenly felt faint, as though touching the fox and looking into his eyes was too much for him. His eyes were too deep, like wells, and he had to pull his arm away quickly. Niles appeared mildly offended.  
"-I want to find out about, um, some old religions," Sonic stammered.  
Niles cocked an eyebrow. "Specifics? We do have a vast collection dealing with echidnean"  
"Porcupinian," Sonic interrupted, "I'm looking for information on something they call the Old Ways, involving runes"  
The librarian narrowed his eyes and cocked his head a little, as though trying to figure out whether Sonic was being serious.  
"And what exactly would a couple of youngsters such as yourselves want to know about the runic tablets of the Old Kind"  
Sonic was about to reply, but Espio butted in, seemingly tired of not being primarily involved in this conversation.  
"Our business is our own!" the chameleon insisted, "Why don't you get your butt up one of those ladders and get us what we want to know? Unless of course you think you might get a crease in your shirt"  
Sonic nudged him hard enough to hurt, and the chameleon looked quizzical. As for Niles, the librarian's face had cycled through at least a dozen shades of red over the past few seconds, and finally settled upon one.  
"Well I _never!_" the fox stammered, "I tell you, you just try to be of some sodding _assistance_ in this world, and all you get is... is..."  
"I apologise about my friend," Sonic said, but he had a feeling that Espio's outburst in combination with his own rude refusal to shake hands had offended this character's sensibilities enough to ruin their chances of any decent assistance. Sonic would have been more polite, but his proximity to Niles really had stirred some strange feelings, feelings which hadn't been as unpleasant as they had been bizarre and frightening. But they weren't entirely new. He had felt the same thing once before, and only fairly recently.  
"I can't just _tell_ you what you want to know," Niles said sulkily, "I'm not sure I would if I could, to tell you the truth, not with _your_ attitude. Everything about porcupines is in section TZ, shelves 1963 to 1970 I believe. Have fun"  
"But that's, like, seven whole shelves," Sonic protested, "I don't have time to look through that many books"  
"It sounds to me that you're in search of somebody who gives a darn," Niles replied.  
"Have _you_ read them"  
"Not all," the fox muttered, and he started doing something else in a clear attempt to communicate his lack of interest. "Some"  
"Well, can't you just itell/i us"  
"Look here! I can't remember every word of every book I've ever read, and if I could I wouldn't spend my valuable time explaining it to you! If you're interested in porcupine irunes/i why don't you visit the museum"  
"Why would we do that?" Sonic asked.  
"Because we _have_ one of them here. It came back with an el Carrion expedition only a few months ago, it's one of our more popular"  
Niles was unable to finish his sentence, because Sonic had already left.

VI/Cinos

Sonic would think it unfortunate that he hadn't set out only a short time earlier that day. As it happened, a few moments before he and Espio entered the library, Cinos burst through the doors of the museum.  
A lot of people who were standing around, looking at paintings and old rusty artifacts, looked up at him in surprise. He didn't care to keep a low profile, in fact he kept the highest profile possible, walking loudly into the museum and stomping around like he was everybody's business. The unusually polite people of the City of Clouds appeared not to be annoyed, going back to whatever they were doing. Cinos didn't make it easy, though. He smugly bumped into people, shouting an extremely sarcastic "iOh! I'm sorry mister/i" or "Excuse ime/i, ma'am!" and then flipping them off or blowing a raspberry and laughing like a hyena. He leaned back, and then ran full pelt down a hallway, reaching dangerous running speeds among the delicate artifacts that lined the halls, and then jumping into a flying skid. People yelled and jumped out of his way as he wreaked his havoc upon the establishment. He observed an old hat, belonging to some long dead celebrity, and grabbed it, sitting it on his head. He danced a jig in a display of small pots from some old civilisation, slagged on a painting and then threw the hat into the crowd of astonished people like a frisbee. Running into another skidding sprint, he came to a large room with lots of tapestries, and in the center was a display cabinet. Inside this cabinet was a single flat stone with a mark on it. The mark looked like a bent-up letter "t". The inscription on the plaque that went with it was long and detailed, but Cinos cared naught about any of it. He whipped out a small string-tied satchel, fat with whatever was inside it, and turned to the gathered audience for one more performance. The dark hedgehog, mad with excitement, held up the bag and, as later reports would indicate, shouted something like "iPeople of Stratosphereon! Explore your dark side/i!" before spinning around and pitching the bag as hard as he could at the display cabinet like a baseball. Whatever was inside it went off like a bomb, showering debris all over the museum and charring some of the walls black. The area was choked with smoke, and by the time it cleared Cinos was gone, as was the rune. His laughter still echoed.

VII

"**Libria has been breeched**," demanded a disembodied and powerful voice that seemed to resonate from everywhere at once. Sonic and Espio both cried out in shock when the voice, neither male nor female and eerily emotionless, echoed through the city. The other citizens seemed to take the news badly, and scattered almost immediately. Before they knew what was even happening, Sonic and Espio found themselves in the middle of a stampede.  
"**Stratosphereon is in lockdown**," the voice continued, "**Illibria has been declared. You will return to your residence. You will await libria. You will not loiter. You will not delay.**"  
"What is _libria_?" Espio asked.  
"Little buddy, I don't have the vaguest idea," Sonic replied, "But I have a feeling it's a problem for us. If there really is a rune in Stratosphereon, I'd like to get to it as soon as possible, but I don't think that's gonna be an option with everybody like this"  
"**Adroits will be released to return your peace of mind. Libria will be restored promptly. You will not loiter. You will not delay.**"  
Sonic noticed the faces of the people who were rushing past, and noticed something that shocked him even more than the booming announcement of the God-voice. The crowd that he had mistaken for being panicked were really anything but. They were prompt, yes, but they were as calm as cattle. Some were even still smiling. Sonic couldn't help but wonder whether this was some kind of bizarre game, a tradition, a practical joke that the regulars of the city played on unsuspecting newcomers. It was something he wanted to believe, but somehow he doubted it. The people hurried past as though this was just another thing to be done in the City of Clouds, and they did it without argument. They did not loiter, they did not delay.  
Before too long, the crowd had dispersed entirely, like a flock of pigeons spooked by a cat. Only Sonic and Espio remained standing, looking bamboozled.  
The Museum of the Clouds, as the large sign above the entrance declared, stood a few metres from where they were, but it would have been almost impossible to enter, as the tide of people was rushing out of it like water in a flooding river. Had they arrived mere moments earlier, they would have seen that the first of these refugees was a cackling blue hedgehog with a stolen artifact. As it was, their tardiness in beating Cinos to the second rune was unrealised.  
When everyone had fled, the area fell silent. Ten minutes earlier, it would have been difficult, if not impossible, to imagine the walkways and pavilions of Stratosphereon being devoid of people. The area had emptied as though it had been on fire, and now it was as still as the dead of night.  
"Should we be doing something?" Espio asked.  
Sonic hadn't been able to hear Espio's voice moments ago unless the chameleon had shouted in his ear. Now he could probably hear a whisper at ten meters.  
"I'm not sure," the hedgehog replied, "I don't think I like this"  
"I'm darn positive I don't like this," the chameleon responded.  
It took a little while to realise that there was something else happening that wasn't quite right. The light was dimming, the streets looking increasingly dull by the second, exactly as though a cloud were passing over the sun. It was for this reason that Sonic hadn't picked up on the strangeness of this phenomenon, until it got a little darker than was normal, at which point it struck him that all the clouds were actually below them, and there should be nothing at all between the flying resort and the sun.  
He looked up, and saw that it was the isky itself/i that was darkening, the sun blinking out like a spent bulb no brighter than the silvery disc of the moon. But that wasn't quite right - only an illusion. What was really happening was that the huge domed windows that encased the city and protected it from the elements were actually tinting themselves, growing darker.  
"Check it out," Sonic said, and the city was already bathed in a twilight ambience that continued to fade. Espio looked up to where he was pointing, and by the time he looked down again, Sonic had vanished completely. Not a single ray of light streamed into the city, although it was the middle of the day. It was like an enormous photographic darkroom. The city had deactivated their sense of sight just as surely as if their eyes had been poked out. Suddenly the wide open courtyard was very, very small.  
"You still there?" Espio whispered.  
"Yes"  
"Stay with me"  
The chameleon grabbed hold of Sonic's arm, and they stood so close that their bodies touched. The power of the darkness was in itself frighteningly intense, and Sonic figured that was largely the point of it. There was no vision, and with the city so empty there was no sound. The hedgehog and the chameleon, both individuals with a large span of interpersonal distance, had to grab a hold of each other to make as much use as possible out of the one sense they still had. It seemed that to let go of each other might be to drift away into the void.  
There iwas/i a sound, though. Too faint at first to register, but it grew in intensity. A kind of irritating electric buzzing noise.  
"Do you hear that?" Espio asked, and Sonic could hear the panic in his voice. "It's electricity I think, they're gonna electrocute us Sonic they're gonna fry us we have to move"  
"No," Sonic replied, and he tried to sound calm and controlled although his voice cracked and Espio could probably feel the force of his heartbeat, "It sounds like insects"  
And it did. As the buzzing loudened, it was clearly the droning of some kind of swarm of something. Bees or hornets, was Sonic's guess. And none too small.  
He was about to suggest that they make a run for it, but the thought was severed by a glimmer of light in the corner of his eye. He glared into the void to make sure it wasn't his imagination, though he had no idea which direction he was looking.  
There it was again, a flicker of light. It cut into his retina like a knife and he had to squint to make it out. The buzzing was coming from that direction.  
"Sonic, what- what-" Espio was stammering.  
The points of light were many, now. Spotlights moving across the ground. Every so often they illuminated an object, and Sonic saw that one thing stand alone in a sea of black nothingness. Whatever was making that buzzing - hundreds of somethings - each one seemed to be equipped with a searchlight. They went about cataloguing everything in the area, possibly everything in the entire city, as though there was a stocktake that needed to be done urgently. That probably wasn't far from the truth. Sonic was reminded about the story of the shoemaker and the elves.  
"Should we run?" Espio. He tugged on Sonic's arm.  
Sonic thought they probably should. But the elves of Stratosphereon worked quickly, and there was an explosion of painful brightness as one of the searchlights illuminated him. He lost contact with Espio and fell onto his backside, shielding his eyes with his arm.  
"**Source of illibria has been identified**," that voice boomed again, and Sonic couldn't properly see the thing that had spoken for the piercing light that it shined in his tender eyes. "**Disparity will be removed and balance restored. Have a nice day**."

VIII/Cinos

The dark hedgehog huddled in a corner, his arms wrapping the stolen rune protectively like a mother snake ready to lash out and destroy whomsoever dared to approach. When the lights came back on, he nearly did. If somebody had been standing there in the darkness, anybody, they would have been dead before they saw him strike. But Cinos was alone, and he had to squint almost to the point of closing his eyes completely when the dome windows of Stratosphereon let the sun shine in again.  
So the city in the sky did indeed have a dark side, a side that it didn't reveal unless it was truly offended. For a few moments, Cinos was at home here. The city had turned, had been like a Chagrin Las Mortis of the sky, and it had thrilled him, made his black and rotten blood run red. He could make peace with a city that flirted with the darkness so readily. In an instant his opinion of Stratosphereon had completely changed. He had wanted to rip this place to shreds in his fury, to dance in the tattered remains of its offensive purity. But the city was not pure, and he saw that now. These people were not filled with joy and spritely mirth, as he had first thought, no no no. They were filled, saturated, with fear. It drenched them to the point of raving lunacy. Stratosphereon was not a paradise, it was an asylum.  
Cinos laughed, hissing and chuckling to himself as he walked the empty pathways, the stone under one arm and his other hand holding the flipknife ready to strike at a moment's excuse. The next person he saw, he might just laugh in their face and leave them to their torturous existence, rather than perhaps more kindly bleeding them dry.  
His amusement didn't last very long, though. He was struck with a rather sickly feeling that he soon realised came from the stone under his arm. The Rune of Fleg, so it had been named in scripture, objected heavily to being moved. Or, perhaps, only to being moved by Cinos. It defended itself, as it was more than capable of doing, by way of injecting him with a feeling of discomfort that began in his gut and seemed to pump through his veins into every cell in his body.  
"You don't like me much, do you?" Cinos asked the stone, "Your brother is more or less indifferent to whose company he finds himself in, but you're different, aren't you? You actually like all this happy-happy-shiny-shiny bullpucky. My company is as uncomfortable to you as yours is to me." He laughed. "Well, that's tough cheese, I'm afraid. You're going to help me whether you like it or not, that's your lot and you're bound to it. I guess we'll - what is it they say? - we'll just have to learn to get along."

IX

The moments after Sonic's encounter with the buzzing drones (had he heard them referred to as Adroits, once upon a time?) were as hazy to him as the dreams of delirium. Every so often he opened his eyes and caught a lucid glimpse of his surroundings, but sleep always conquered him again.

He was on a moving platform, like a gurney, strapped down on his back. His limbs were useless. He was moved through a long, white tunnel until he came to

sleep

strange beings, the likes of which he had never seen before, looked down at him with great interest. He tried to shield himself from them but they

sleep

shackled onto a chair and being prodded, the beings holding him down and he recoiling from their touch but unable to resist as

sleep

asked questions that didn't make sense to him, something about an artifact, a crime of which he was surely innocent. He tried to tell them he didn't know what

sleep

didn't believe him, said they had recorded him, but he couldn't remember... the hog was very insistent and furious that he wouldn't say

sleep

on the move again, and saying he would never be set free until he told them what they wanted to know

sleep.

X

Espio didn't care to offer the courtesy of being quiet in the enormous Library of the Clouds. One thing to be said about Espio the Chameleon was that politeness had never been one of his virtues while in the throes of a tantrum, and he was determined to get some answers from these bizarre people if he had to raise the roof to get them.  
The librarian, Niles Wilkinson-Price, smiled and began to offer the usual greeting and offer of service, but Espio wasn't about to let him get a word in edgeways until he was invited to.  
"_What the heck is with this place?_" he demanded.  
Niles cocked a single eyebrow, in the way that he was so apt to do when he either didn't understand the question or wasn't willing to answer it.  
"I'm afraid I don't quite know what"  
"You heard me!" Espio exclaimed. Several people studying in the library looked up at him.  
"Excuse me," Niles said, "But I'm going to have to ask you to please keep your voice down"  
"The heck I will!" Espio raised his voice a register, in the name of spite. "The lights just went out and a bunch of weird ithings/i swarmed in and took my friend away, and now nobody is willing to tell me what happened. Is everyone here iinsane/i? Where have you people taken him"  
Niles' expression had changed, now, and his brick-wall facade had broken away to reveal- Nervousness? Anxiety? Fear?  
He leaned in close to Espio and spoke in a tone so low it was almost a whisper.  
"Look, calm down, for your own sake. Anger is illibric, and if you don't stop shouting right now, they're going to find you and deal with you"  
"Who?" the chameleon asked, "Who will find me? What will they do"  
"While you're in Stratosphereon, my young lad, you either stay happy or they will imake/i you happy. And for pete sakes, if you're inot/i going to calm down, at least take your sodding mood outside, or else they might change their mind about leaving ime/i alone"  
"Please," Espio said, whispering now, "Just tell me what's happened to Sonic"  
"I don't have an ounce of sympathy for your blue friend," Niles replied, "He was daft enough to steal a very valuable item out of my museum. To commit a sodding icrime/i. Here! The Adroits took your friend to Libria for realignment, and well they should, the little vandal"  
"Sonic didn't do anything!" Espio protested loudly, "You've got the wrong guy"  
Niles hushed him, now clearly nervous, looking around as though they were being watched.  
"Where is this Libria?" the chameleon asked more quietly.  
"You can go visit your sodding little delinquent friend if you want," replied the exasperated librarian, "You can do just about anything in Stratosphereon as long as you don't look like you intend to cause any trouble. Just don't forget to curb that temper of yours. Anger is what they hate most of all."

XI

An enormously obese hog, his tusks almost long enough to touch his forehead, stood before Sonic when he opened his eyes. Between the two of them was a barred gate like a prison cell, and the hog was dressed in the formal attire of an authority figure. The expression on his long, angular face was one of deep disappointment and bitter displeasure.  
"I wonder," the hog said, "whether you have decided to tell me what I want to know"  
"And what is that?" Sonic wanted to say. What came out was slurred and barely discernable.  
The hog sighed and folded his arms. "You mainlanders. You send your delinquents up here, offended by our paradise, but you never count on the repercussions. The excuses always vary but the intentions are always the same"  
"I didn't do anything wong!" Sonic tried. It came out as "_Idundonuffinrong_..."  
"You're only prolonging your own misery," the hog replied, "Your guilt is not under question. We have video feed, audio data, biophysical and genetic identification"  
"Win- Win-," Sonic tried. He frowned and gathered his strength. "_Twins_."  
"So you've been claiming. But even identical twins don't share half of the incriminating evidence we have against you. Unless you and your twin share the same fingerprints. The same DNA"  
Sonic lolled his head back and floated on the sublime tranquility of the muscle relaxant in his veins. There was very little he could do, he realised, to prove his innocence. After all, he and Cinos were in many ways the same person. In all likelihood the only differences between them were spiritual ones.  
"I'm going to give you some time to gather your senses," the hog announced, "And I shall return when you've decided to tell me what I want to know"  
Sonic hadn't heard the final sentiment. He was lost in a state that wasn't quite sleep, but he was far from aware.

XII

It didn't take Espio very long to locate the place that Niles the librarian had called Libria. People in the City of Clouds were always more than willing to help in any way they could, and there was always kind of dreamy, worshipful gaze in their eyes whenever Espio mentioned the name of the place.  
Libria stood in roughly the centre of the complex, and its name was spelled out in big, silver letters over a wide, open doorway. A very homely feel radiated from the building, as well as a deeper and almost hidden sense of malaise and malice. The way that people walked about, smiling and laughing, playing in the corridors, it was difficult to believe that only a couple of hours ago the city had been a dark and desolate place, swarming with invisible regulators who hunted with spotlights and spoke with cold, genderless robotic voices.  
Duality was definitely a recurring theme in this adventure, and Espio was reminded of the story that he still wasn't entirely sure he believed, about twin worlds and twin hedgehogs on opposite sides of the very same coin, vying for the fate of everything. The chameleon had almost seen the antiverse when the lights went out in Stratosphereon, had almost caught a glimpse of a world that lay beyond this one and had turned as sour as milk left out of the fridge. There was an explanation, of course - Sonic's stories had gotten to him, infected his imagination. Just the same as how you feel itchy when someone is talking about fleas.  
(and then there was the Awakening, where he actually connected with your mind so deeply that you were one person for a few moments. Explain _that_)  
But he couldn't. And didn't want to.  
The inside of Libria looked to Espio almost like a small city within the larger one (but Stratosphereon was still very small as cities went, so that made Libria almost a compact city, a city in a suitcase). But as far as he could tell, it wasn't a city where people lived. Almost everyone in this impossibly crowded complex was wearing a uniform of some kind, and everyone without exception was wearing a smile on their dial, like they all had the greatest job in the world. Espio could tell almost straight away that this was where the City of Clouds was run. It was the engine of this floating paradise, and these were its engineers.  
There were more than just mobians walking around in here, too. Espio was stunned to see robots milling about, as well. In a world where mechanical things were shunned and hated, here there were a large number of them wandering about in what seemed to be total harmony with the people with whom they co-inhabited this resort of the sky. He was reminded of the lonely robots who had led an exiled existence in the desert town of Newton, and thought they probably would have loved to have known about this little slice of heaven.  
What Espio didn't understand was where he might find Sonic in this place. He had expected to find something more like a prison, where the undesirables of society were tucked away and hidden so as not to offend the unnatural purity of the rest of the city. What he found instead was this pristine modern palace of white and silver, emblazoned with murals of multi-coloured stick figures holding hands and smiling, with flowers and happy suns. It made the rest of the city look almost depressing.  
"Gag me," the chameleon muttered, and made his way through the crowd towards a map of the complex that was displayed inside the entrance.  
Espio's eyes fixed on the area labelled _Realignment Center_. He remembered Niles had mentioned something about realignment. The word sent a shiver down his spine, although he wasn't sure what it implied. Perhaps that uncertainty itself was the source of this uneasy feeling. Choking down his dread, he entered the hub of Stratosphereon's operations, and he was the only one not smiling.  
The Realignment Center was just where the map had placed it. To Espio it looked like a dentist waiting room, with a reception desk off to the side, near an inviting doorway leading into a hall. There was a sign over the doorway that said iPlease check in with reception before proceeding/i and had a picture of a dopey little stick figure reaching for a door and scratching his head in muddled confusion.  
"Can I help you?" asked the smiling, happy receptionist. Espio looked around and saw that nobody else was waiting.  
"Uh, yeah, maybe," he said. His eyes had wandered to a colourful poster with a hand pointing to him. iYOU can help sustain paradise/i it announced, iReport illibric behaviour to central investigations. Just dial 0/i "I'm looking for my friend Sonic. He's supposed to be here, I think"  
"Oh, I'm so sorry," the receptionist replied, looking a little sullen behind her smile and apologetic, "Your friend has been classified a Class Three behaviour offender, so I'm afraid he can't have any visitors at this point in time. He's been quarantined until such time as he can be designated reliable for"  
"What the heck is a Class Three behaviour offender?" Espio demanded, "Sonic didn't do anything wrong, he was just standing there with me when these things hauled him away and took him here"  
The receptionist looked a little uneasy behind her smile, nervous, even a little afraid, and Espio realised he hadn't been wearing his smile. It was now that he began to grow angry. The people of Stratosphereon were all clearly idiots with their buffoon smiles and random arrests. This particular mobian's obviously false smile was just enough to send him right over the edge. Even Niles in the library had the audacity to cluck back when challenged, to respond like a normal person, although he did so in a reserved and pompous way. He had warned Espio that the people of Stratosphereon didn't respond well to anger, but what were they going to do? Ask him politely to lower his voice?  
"A Class Three," the receptionist explained, "is a behaviour rating assigned to a perpetrator of any violent act or antisocial crime up to and including robbery, displays of public indecency"  
"_We were minding our own business_!" Espio shrieked, "Can't you people get it into your heads that he wasn't doing anything wrong? He was with me the entire time! He wasn't stealing anything or committing _antisocial crimes_, he wasn't doing anything at all"  
The receptionist looked very uneasy, now, and her smile had almost faded completely (but not completely, never completely). "Sir? I- I think that"  
"_Who is in charge here?_" Espio yelled, and he was so enjoying his intimidation that he acted even angrier than he really was. "I want to speak to someone in charge of this mess! _Who is in charge_?"  
"_I_ am"  
Espio turned to see that the doorway under the polite sign now had somebody to fill it. An enormous hog, the only person Espio had seen in this city who didn't have even the vaguest trace of a smile, looked down at him from his great vantage point. He was flanked by several of the robots that the chameleon had seen wandering about Stratosphereon.  
Suddenly, he didn't feel quite so intimidating.  
"You're in charge, huh?" He tried his best to hide his nervousness, but his voice trembled and he knew it.  
"Yes," the hog replied, "I am. I think we have a great many things to discuss, you and I. Beginning with your attitude. That is not the way we speak to one another in the City of Clouds."

XIII

It didn't look like any prison cell Sonic had ever seen before, and in the course of his many adventures he had seen quite a few. The walls were adorned with the kinds of posters one might see in a primary school classroom, with advice like _Winners don't steal_ and _A friendly city is a happy city_ and _Larry Libria sez: "Remember your manners_!". He would have found it a joke if it didn't seem so serious.  
That wasn't even the strangest thing about this prison, not by far. The strangest thing was the fact that there was no door.  
The cell stood as wide open as an office cubicle. There weren't even any of the robot soldiers that had been referred to as Adroits patrolling the area. He could see the exit to the complex, unguarded and inviting, meters from where he sat. And yet he didn't even put a foot outside the designated area of his small cell. He was careful not to let his arm reach outside when he stretched. The only thing scarier than a prison with bars, padlocks and guards was a prison that didn't need any of them.  
There were others here, as well. Not many - two, maybe three. He couldn't see them from where he was, but could hear. One of them spent almost the entire time crying softly. Sonic had been locked up for at least half a day (and that's only the time he spent lucid), and the crying hadn't let up even once as far as he knew. He had tried to communicate with any of the other prisoners, but nobody spoke back, even though it was impossible that they couldn't hear him.  
He knew the sun was going down, because the complex was open and let in a lot of natural light. Either night was almost upon them, or someone else had triggered the city's wrath. He decided it was the former, because it had been just about twelve hours since dawn, by his calculations, and there were no loudspeakers proclaiming a breech of _libria_.  
Sonic felt tired, but he didn't want to sleep. He had slept too much already, thanks to the unhealthy cocktail of drugs his captors had put into his system, and his sleep was uneasy, full of hallucinations. When he'd been coming out of his drugged state and climbing the long stairway back to lucidity, the illusions had been worse. For about an hour he had semi-slept in this strange cell, only to be constantly spooked awake by the certainty that there were giant lizard-monsters in there with him. The creatures made a bizarre attack cry - wibble-_kee!_ - and he shouted and scrambled to protect himself. But it was only his mind playing tricks on him, every time. And once, just once, it had been Cinos who he saw standing in this cell with him, a ring of rune stones under his feet, the great white wyrm coiled around him, aglow with the powers of the Old Ways.  
But now he was haunted by none of it, for whatever had been introduced to his system had worn off and left him only the slightest bit drowsy. If he slept, he figured it would be strong enough to plague him with the visions again, so he didn't give it that satisfaction.  
Night had come, and the lights in the prison with it, for about three hours before he looked up from where he sat (staring at those posters - he thought that they were there for a reason, that staring at them for long enough would actually begin to brainwash a person) and was shocked to see Espio coming towards him, a huge smile on the chameleon's face. iHe's talked them into letting me out! He's posted bail or something/i "Hey there, champ!" Espio exclaimed.  
"Buddy, am I glad to see you!" Sonic replied, excited. "I knew I brought you along for a reason"  
Espio laughed - a little too long and hard, Sonic thought, but thought little of it.  
"Just thought I'd check out how my bestest buddy is doing, in this lonely old jail cell. This place sure is pretty at night, isn't it"  
"Sure," Sonic replied, "So listen, are we going, or what? Are they letting me out on good behaviour or something"  
The smile didn't leave Espio's face. As a matter of fact, it widened. "Nope!" he said.  
This was followed by about two minutes of silence, the two staring back at each other and Sonic waiting for Espio to continue speaking. When it was clear that he wasn't going to, Sonic made a gesture with his fingers and said "Um, so"  
Espio laughed again. This time, Sonic realised there was something strange about that laugh, something a little unnatural. There was nothing really to laugh about.  
"You!" Espio said as though Sonic had been kidding, "Now, you know they can't just let you out of here, Sonic"  
"Why not?" Sonic asked, exasperated.  
"I was gonna come here and sort everything out for you, but after I got here they took me aside and told me why you were here! And I have to say, you've been a real Mr Naughtypants"  
Sonic checked Espio's face for signs that he was joking, sure that they would be there, even though the joke wasn't particularly funny and wasn't in the spirit of Espio's sense of humour anyway.  
"Espio"  
The chameleon looked happy, but in a very dumb, absent kind of way. It was the bliss of the ignorant, a child's innocent glee. He laughed again. "Don't worry, Sonic, they're not gonna hurt you. This is a inice/i place, remember? They're just waiting for you to tell them where you stashed the rune you took, and once you've done that, everything can go back to normal. They'll even let you know the secret to being as happy as everyone else here! They're not all freaks, you know. We only thought that because we thought it was too good to be true. It was a really mean and ignorant thing to think, really. I told them I was sorry." He blushed, as though he was a little embarrassed. When Espio blushed, his entire body turned rose-coloured.  
"Espio..." Sonic said again, "I didn't take the rune, remember? I was with you, all along"  
"Yeah, that's what I thought, but they showed me the tapes and stuff, and told me all this other evidence they have, and there's really no question." He laughed yet again. "You're igood/i, Sonic! You really should put that skill towards something other than stealing! You could be a really good magician or something"  
"What have they done to you?" Sonic growled, "What have these twisted lunatics done to you"  
"We didn't do anything to him that he wouldn't have wanted," announced a strong, familiar voice, and the huge hog with the blue uniform approached Espio from behind, putting a big hand on the chameleon's shoulder. His face was stony and as cold as a glacier.  
"Who are you?" Sonic spat.  
"My name is Judge Snortzworth," the hog replied, "I keep the peace in Stratosphereon. I keep the _libria_. Your friend is happy and only wants the best for you. I can show you how to be as happy as him for as long as you like. If you let me"  
"Bugger you and bugger libria," Sonic shot back. Espio appeared hurt by the outburst, Snortzworth angered. "What _is_ libria?" the hedgehog demanded, "What is this sacred rule I'm supposed to have broken?"  
Snortzworth frowned, shifting his weight from side to side as he paced slowly back and forth outside Sonic's open cell. Espio just smiled and looked around as though reflecting deeply about how wonderful everything in the world was.  
"Libria is a state of mind," Snortzworth said, "A unity, a sense of contentment. Nobody in Stratosphereon needs to worry about the pressures of life, nobody needs ever contemplate suicide or conspire to harm another. As long as the corruption of the outside world doesn't poison our well of happiness, we remain pure, life remains good. But the corruption does come. And that's what I'm here for"  
"You drug them," Sonic hissed, "Forced happiness isn't real happiness"  
"Ha!" The hog seemed for the first time to be almost amused, but only in a sarcastic and condescending way. How could someone so bitter possibly be in charge of people's happiness? It boggled Sonic's mind.  
"Happiness is a drug," Snortzworth said, "You experience mirth when your brain secretes a certain kind of chemical. When you feel anemic, you ingest iron. When you feel lethargic, you ingest sugar. You take calcium for your bones and protein for your muscles. Anger and depression are treatable conditions, just like anything else. You take a pill and it goes away. We've never had a complaint yet"  
"You're playing God," Sonic protested, "Don't you see that"  
"I wouldn't say so," Snortzworth replied, "In fact, I resent the accusation. _God_ has done a pretty rotten job of things. His people rape, kill and rob each other blind every day. Ours don't. I should remind you which of us is on trial for malicious vandalism. Nobody from Stratosphereon"  
"Nobody from Stratosphereon has that option," Sonic grumbled.  
Snortzworth smiled for the first time. "Precisely"  
"And how do you get away with all this? How can you do this to people and get _away_ with it?"  
"One of the reasons we took to the sky," the hog replied, "Between Torion and Westerica, never more here than there, we are citizens of no nation. International airspace. When you're here, you follow our laws. Our ways. You only need to think of this as unreasonable for as long as you retain the greed and intolerance of your ground-dwelling life. You will realise in time that we are right to do what we do. Your friend has realised this"  
"It's true, Sonic," Espio said with a smile, "Life is so iawesome/i here. I've never felt so good"  
"Yeah? Well there's one thing wrong with your theory," Sonic said.  
"Oh?" Snortzworth asked, "And what might that be"  
"You're frowning"  
The hog cocked an eyebrow.  
"If your world is so fantastic," Sonic said, "Why don't you take your own drug"  
"In an ideal world, there would be no reason for people like me," Snortzworth said, "But the world isn't nice. It's hard. I'm hard because I have to deal with it. I love this city too much to let people like you march in and take it apart brick-by-brick." He leaned in close to Sonic. "You have the rest of the night to think about giving back what you took. In the morning, I'm afraid we will have to start doing things the hard way, and that won't be pleasant for either one of us"  
"Me either," Espio said, shaking his head, "I don't want to see you get hurt, Sonic. Don't be such a Negative Nelly! You have no idea what you're _missing!_"

XIV

Sonic figured that he probably should have realised from the beginning that Stratosphereon wasn't protected by the laws of nations, and had he known this he would have been much more wary of the place. The Adroits were a give-away. The cold and genderless regulators of the city, the only ones who could really be ihard in a world that is hard/i. Robots were illegal on Mobius, and the quickest and easiest way for anyone to remind the world of Robotnik's brutal genocide would be for a city to implement a robot police force. There was no legal precedent for anybody to interfere with the activities taking place in Stratosphereon, and being that it was politically pacifistic, it was likely that nobody on the ground really cared.  
Snortzworth had been right about one thing: The world was hard.  
But Sonic was in no position to be contemplating the ethical ramifications of Snortzworth's utopia. He had missed the warning signs that the City of Clouds was a trap, and had allowed it to snap shut on him. Even if he escaped from their prison, it wouldn't change the fact that the city was suspended six hundred meters over the open ocean. Any escape would only be partial and probably temporary. The most frightening thing was that, by morning, he might not even care. If they got to him with that libria drug, his quest for the runes would end there and then. He would forget his problems and, with them, his responsibilities. He thought of himself smiling and dancing hand in hand with Espio and the rest of the assimilated folk of Stratosphereon, too set in his new life in the clouds to care about the Freedom Fighters and their plight... and shuddered.  
"You've sure done a great job, Sonic old buddy," he said to himself, "Caught by the enemy for the third time. And Espio ain't going to bust you out this time either, he's too busy picking posies. Some fine hero you've turned out to be"  
He considered trying to slide into the antiverse again, to escape the trap that way, but then he remembered Cinos' warning in the chameleons' pit.  
"You only skip over the fence when you know what's on the other side," the dark hedgehog had said. Sonic imagined sliding out of this world and into the next, only to fall from the sky like a hailstone and drown in the ocean of the antiverse. Definitely not a good idea.  
It was about an hour after Snortzworth and Espio had left him to his thoughts, and someone else entered the prison complex, wheeling some kind of large trolley-basket. For a moment he was sure that the governing powers of Stratosphereon had come to give him an injection of happiness-serum, and tensed up for a fight. But the trolley was full of books, and the person at its helm was only Niles, the uptight librarian. Sonic was somewhat relieved by his presence - anybody that arrogant was likely to have his brain intact.  
_Hrrmph_, was the sound he made when he wheeled the trolley up to Sonic's cell and saw who was sitting inside. "I must say, it pains me to even consider offering you a book, considering your obvious contempt for such things as culture and history. But offer I must, for it is my job to do so. Just please don't take any _important_ books, if vandalism is on your mind. Wreck something tasteless, like this." He held up a book by somebody named _SP Davis_, who Sonic had never heard of.  
"Don't be such a Negative Nelly," Sonic said, echoing the words of his librified friend. "How come iyou've/i managed to escape the joy police"  
"I don't raise a fuss," Niles explained. "Less than half of the people you see walking around out there have actually been irealigned/i with the libria drug. The rest have adapted"  
"So you've actually bred out diversity," Sonic said, "Created a nice little cult of living robots, taught them it's not okay to be sad once in a while, that being a real person is a breech of libria. Congratulations"  
Niles appeared mildly offended. "Not me!" he protested, "I've done no such thing! I just curate a bit of sodding _culture_!"  
"But you see it being done and look the other way"  
"Yes, I'd like to keep my brain the way it is, thank you." The fox looked directly into Sonic's eyes, and Sonic felt the same strange, swimmy feeling that he had earlier, the last time he had sustained eye contact with this individual. Slightly faint, as though he could get lost in the fox's eyes and never escape.  
"Look," Niles said, and started to turn away, "I have no desire to explain myself to you, dear hedgehog, and if you want to engage me in such a discussion, then I retract my offer of reading material, good day to y"  
"iWait/i!" Sonic shouted, and with his signature speed he shot forward and grabbed Niles by the wrist. The fox shrieked and fought back, fearful of being attacked.  
"Look at me," Sonic demanded.  
Niles was shouting in alarm, but he looked into Sonic's eyes again and his shouts faded to a whisper. The moment Sonic had grabbed him, all the sounds in the world had stopped, had fell silent as though the attention of all reality was focused on the two of them. Time itself had frozen.  
"Look at me"  
Sonic had been here before, had felt this strange ipot pourri/i of emotions not too long ago, and under similar circumstances. Now somehow he knew that this was the only way forward, that it had to be done.  
With Niles squirming in his solid grip, Sonic slipped into his second Awakening as though visiting an old friend.

XV

Niles was caught at first in the calmness of shock, but when realisation settled in, he reacted badly, much worse than Espio had. He rejected it completely, and his body faded very quickly. Sonic was afraid that their connection would sever, and urgently tried to radiate a sense of calm onto the terrified fox. His mind, partially connected to Sonic's, absorbed enough of his calm to remain where he was. For now.  
The two of them stood opposite each other in what seemed like the biggest library in the universe, bigger than the one that Niles curated in the City of Clouds by maybe a thousand times. Rows and rows of shelves went on to near infinity in all directions. If Niles noticed, he didn't seem to care. Wide-eyed and frantic, he bombarded Sonic's mind with loud and chaotic questions that made the hedgehog recoil. He could feel the fox's distress, and felt himself beginning to share it.  
(-bloody sodding don't sodding want to be here scared cripes what where am I who are you stop this and stop it now or I'll thrash the life out of you sodding hedgehog let me out let me out let me)  
Sonic felt as though he was holding Niles in place, and that it was like holding back an electric train. He couldn't keep up his mental strength for long, eventually the other's panic would win out and break their connection and he knew it.  
_Stop it,_ he commanded, _Please! Listen to me! Calm down and listen to me_  
(You're in my _head!_) Niles shrieked, (Who are you that you think you can go rummaging around in my _head?_)  
_You can see into mine as well_.  
(Maybe I will, then! See how you like it)  
Sonic felt a very powerful pressure on his mind, probing into it, invading it, reaching as far as it could and thrashing about. _Shivers_, he thought, _Is this what it feels like for him? No wonder he's distressed_.  
The bookshelves around them began to rock and shift about as though they were alive, the pages in the books ruffling and flipping about by themselves.  
_Listen to me._ Sonic projected his thoughts towards Niles. _Relax, let this happen. It's important._ He felt Niles withdraw from his mind.  
(Important for you. This is _your_ Awakening, not mine. You don't see the ethical ramifications associated with sifting through somebody's mind like this)  
_I-_  
Niles may have been right. The contents of a person's head were the most private possessions anybody had, and ordinarily the mind was the safest place in the world for secrets. Without Niles' full consent, he was committing the most dastardly invasion of privacy imaginable.  
(How do I know what you know?) Niles demanded, (Tell me that)  
_We can bring our minds together. We can make them-_  
(-merge)  
Sonic could feel Niles' resistance weaken. As it did, the books stopped shifting and the cases fell dormant.  
_Let me see what I want to know. You can keep-_  
(-the rest of it a secret)  
_-but focus on the memories that you will-_  
(-let me see. Let your memories-)  
_-become my memories_.  
(What is it you need?)  
_Information_.  
Sonic turned to the books in their shelves and saw them fly past his vision. Were the bookshelves flying past him, or was he flying past them? He supposed it didn't matter. Every book was blank, the spines were devoid of a title, and somehow he knew that every page would be empty and unmarked. Blank books full of white, blank pages.  
(What information?)  
_Read my mind and see for yourself_.  
(You need to know about)  
_Runes_.  
Some of the books had words on them, now. Not many, but a few. Sonic hoped that it would be enough. Niles may not consciously remember what he knows about the Runes and the Old Ways, but the mind retains a huge amount of information. What the librarian had picked up might still be in here, bits and pieces of knowledge he had absorbed in his life and which hadn't interested him enough or been important enough to him to remember. Sonic hoped. He started to pick up books and took them with him. Some of the books he saw weren't about Runes or porcupines or anything at all, and he tried to discriminate about what he took.  
(Don't read about what you don't need to know, dear hedgehog. My mind is not yours to explore)  
It became more and more difficult by the second to select the appropriate material from the fox's mental library. The information that Sonic wanted was hidden among hundreds of tomes which had materialised titles and readable text. Many of these books were about the Arack Empire, even most of them, and Sonic had an idea that Arack was never far from his mind. Why, he couldn't say, and at this moment it was irrelevant. They were running out of time. The music was ending and it was almost time to get off the dance floor. And if Sonic's hunch was accurate, they wouldn't get another chance to make a connection like this. Not with each other.  
Niles' image began to fade, and Sonic felt their connection weakening.  
_Stay true, Niles, just for a moment longer, stay-_  
(-true. I will try, but I am-)  
_-weakening, yes. I only need a moment, a few seconds, a flash..._  
One book seemed to glow with an ethereal energy, dimming the other volumes around it. The words on its cover shone so bright that they filled his mind's eye with golden light, and Sonic knew instantly that the book contained exactly what he needed to know. He reached out with the hand that his Awakening projected onto his mind, reached out and clutched the warm, incandescent tome...

XVI

Niles shrieked and pulled his arm away so hard that he might have fallen over backwards, if not for the trolley of books behind him.  
"_What the devil was that?_" he demanded.  
"I-" Sonic began calmly, but realised there was no really good answer to that question, at least none that he knew himself. "I'm not sure. It's something that needs to happen, I know that much"  
"What do you mean it _needs_ to _happen_?  
The image of Father Thaldymort, dressed heavy in his robes and cloaks, came to Sonic's mind. The priest held his rosary to his forehead and whispered a prayer to the god of whatever religion he followed, and seemed to look up for a moment to address the hedgehog. Sonic couldn't understand what it was that the Father said, but no doubt the gist of it was that there were forces at work higher than either of them could see with their eyes or touch with their fingers. (And what was that moving beneath the priest's robes? Coiling itself around his neck and poking its white tube of a head out of his collar)  
"I'm not sure whether I believe in fate," Sonic said, "But I think that, one way or another, we were meant to meet each other. Just like Espio and I were meant to meet. I don't think I can win this without you... I have a feeling I couldn't even make it half-way"  
"Win _what_?" Niles was shrinking back, scrambling to add space between himself and the hedgehog he so obviously feared, but there was something else written on his face. Something that told a deeper story.  
"You know the answer to that," Sonic said, "Don't you? I can read it all over you"  
Niles frowned and gritted his teeth. Sonic visualised a feeble toadfish puffing itself up like a balloon and splaying its quills, and he had to fight back a smile.  
"What have you done to me?" the fox growled, "These sodding pictures in my head, these memories that _aren't mine_."  
"You were in my head and I was in yours," Sonic explained, as calmly as he could. He didn't want to fight with Niles, because he still had the strong feeling that the librarian's assistance was imperative to his success, and possibly his survival. "Actually, I think it's more than that. I think that, for a few moments, our minds were... well, the same mind. Mixed together like two liquids."  
"Bollocks," Niles spat.  
Sonic squinted a little. "I don't know what that means."  
"It means you're lying, or crazy, or both. Everything you're saying is on the far side of impossible, and then some. And I won't suffer to hear another word of it. Good day."  
He began to storm away, his book-trolley in tow.  
"You're scared!" Sonic called, "I know you are, and I'm sorry! But you have to help me, and you know why! You're scared because you've been in my mind and you _know what I'm saying is the truth_!"  
"I don't have to do anything I don't want to do," Niles said, "All I want to do is live in peace and not raise a fuss, and I never would, if not for you people. You come into my library, into my life, and try to ruin everything, just when everything starts looking up for me at long last. Well, I'm not going to let you. No matter what mind-tricks you use on me, I'm not going to be pulled into your little game of mischief. I bid you again, sir, good _day_."

XVII

Niles left the prison compound of Libria with a frown on his face, but corrected himself as soon as he returned to the public eye, wearing his best and most well-practiced false smile. Because iLarry Libria sez: "Remember your manners!"/i, and while Larry Libria was fiction, the consequences for not following his advice certainly weren't.  
He wheeled the book-trolley through the crowded aisles, nodding and smiling whenever someone greeted him (which was frequently) and muttering under his breath. What nerve that hedgehog had. iHelp/i him? iHelp/i an incarcerated and illibric criminal delinquent simply because he could work some kind of dime-store illusion against an unsuspecting librarian who only wanted to do his job and mind his own business? What kind of idiot did the kid take him for?  
_He's just another one of Them_ he told himself, _He might have four limbs instead of eight, but he's as crafty as an Arack and every bit as immoral_. He saw Espio the Chameleon wandering about the facility like a child one quarter of his true age, drifting as though in a beautiful dream, his arms spread out at his sides. The first dose of libria was always the most intense. He looked as though he was filled with such joy that it might just kill him. When he saw Niles, his face brightened even more and he waved frantically with both hands. Niles was momentarily afraid that the chameleon was going to run over to him and hug him. He remembered speaking to the chameleon on two other occasions earlier that very day, and being met with nothing but hostility. This version of Espio was no more capable of hostility than your average plush toy.  
"I warned you," Niles said quietly, while smiling and waving back, "Don't you ever say I didn't warn you"  
Espio, too far away and too preoccupied to hear the librarian's words, clapped his hands together and danced through the crowd. The people, some of them recipient to the libria treatment and some of them merely so submerged in the culture of Stratosphereon that they didn't need to be, all but ignored his bizarre behaviour (after all, it wasn't so bizarre) and went on with their work, making sure the Way of Libria was ever upheld. Occasionally a robot clunked its way through the crowd, but Niles had long since become used to the fact that the robots and the people of Stratosphereon could almost be mistaken for each other, in the right light.  
Such was the price of libria.  
And God (if there ever were such a critter) knew that it was still better to reside here in this paradise of robots living and dead, than to remain in the service of that abominable Empire, legs and webs and all.  
Niles returned with his trolley of books to where it was always kept, in the basement of his cherished library, and not in the restocking shelves upstairs. After all, the same books would need to be taken out the next night to be offered to the poor unfortunates (or fortunates, whichever way you wanted to look at it) awaiting the libria treatment. The books he selected for this purpose were little more than scrap anyway, heaven forfend he offer any of his good books to a pack of convicted vandals. Niles was loathe to throw away any book, no matter its condition, but these were as close to expendable as he could bear.  
He slumped in a chair and sighed. The hedgehog in the prison had asked him to do something that would without a doubt wreck his life a second time, and had offered him nothing in exchange for this extreme disservice, nothing but the vague assurance that it was fate that they should work together. It was a fallacy, a cop-out, fancy words that really meant zip. What does a person say to such a request? Surely there was only one obvious answer. The librarian, brimming with contempt and bitterness, stared at the book-trolley with his head in his hands. He had dipped into the mind of this mobian who he barely even knew from a bar of soap, had ibecome one/i with the hedgehog's thoughts, and it terrified him. He didn't ask for this, for any of this. All he ever wanted was to lead a quiet life, as secluded as possible, doing what he liked to do in peace, away from the responsibilities of what Judge Snortzworth referred to as the Hard World. And now, just as he found his niche in a floating city that shared his outlook, this fell onto his plate out of nowhere. The City of Clouds, he thought, was safe from such complications. Apparently not. Apparently, when the Hard World had you marked on its hit list, the Hard World found you wherever you thought to hide.  
The hedgehog had asked him to throw his life away for a cause he didn't care about, and offered nothing but pain and uncertainty in return. The answer to such a request was obvious, and he had responded as such.  
But the obvious answer was not the expected one. The world was too hard for that kind of simplicity.  
"You can come out, dear hedgehog, we're safe for the time being," he said, then added, "That is, just for the time being. Very soon I think you'll find that nowhere is safe"  
Sonic sat up from under the pile of books in the trolley and looked around to orient himself.  
"The library"  
"Yes, yes"  
The hedgehog climbed out of the trolley and stretched. "Thanks," he said, knowing that such a statement would never cover the magnitude of Niles' deed. Niles seemed to know it, and waved it away with a depressed flick of his hand.  
"So what is it that you expect to do now?" the librarian asked, "No escape is really an escape, not up here. You may be out of Libria, but you're still encapsulated above a large body of water, that much hasn't changed. What has changed is that we're both fugitives, now"  
"I avoided the happy-gas," Sonic replied, "That's escape enough for me. As for getting off this floating nuthouse, we can cross that bridge when we come to it. First we need to find Cinos and his Runes. Then we can get Espio and blow this popsicle stand"  
"And what makes you think I'll continue to help you?" Niles asked.  
Sonic shrugged. "At this point, I can't see that you really have a choice."

XVIII/Cinos

"The time has come for us to make our leave," rasped the silhouette in the doorway, and Rasputan's eyes drifted immediately to the stone that the dark hedgehog held under his arm.  
"You have it," he whispered, but noticed quickly that Cinos' face was set in an expression of bitter and unpalatable exhaustion, the expression of someone wracked by some irritating and inescapable minor torture. It was enough to bury his sense of humour.  
"Of course I got it, you twirp, I'm not here for the fresh air. It radiates happiness, did you know that? It figures that the rune of mirth should wind up in this asylum"  
"It boggles the mind," Rasputan replied, "Do you suppose that the stone's energy made these people what they are? Or did it actually seek this place to settle somewhere more in tune with its nature"  
"I don't icare/i, Cinos snapped, "That's as pointless as a quiet death. What I care about is finding the last three rocks before this one drives me to suicide." He met Rasputan's eyes for a moment and a shadow passed over his face. "Murder-suicide," he said.  
Rasputan shivered a little and hoped that Cinos didn't notice. "Here, K," he said, and held out a kind of linen carrying-case. "It's been soaked in ratseed oil and blessed. It won't drown out the rune completely, that's beyond anyone's ability on this level of the Tower, but it should muffle"  
Cinos snatched the bag, dropped the rune inside, and wrapped it tightly in the slightly clammy linen. He closed his eyes and the stress on his face loosened, the wrinkles in his brow releasing.  
"Better," he said.  
"I held palaver with the Old Gods," Rasputan said with a self-indulgent smile, "Chatted it up real friendly-like. I know our next stop, the only problem is getting there. Stepping off this floating cesspit is one thing, but the Isle of Septennia tends to be a tricky place to find"  
"I gave myself a little tour of the facility," Cinos replied, "Found some interesting things. You can leave the escape to me. As for the other problem... well, that's why I keep you around." He grinned, and Rasputan thought that that smile really meant ithat's why I keep you alive/i.  
There was a knock on the door, and they both froze, locking eyes. A deep silence loomed over the room for what might have been a minute, and Cinos took in breath to speak again, but he was cut off by another knock, louder this time. The hedgehog's eyes narrowed, and slowly his hand found his dagger, his fingers wrapping intimately around its hilt.  
"Who is it?" he called in his most polite tone.

XIX

Sonic wore a coat and hat to obscure his features when he left the private sanctuary of the Stratosphereon library. Sunglasses, too. The only thing he feared was that too elaborate a disguise might make him too conspicuous among the less modest citizens of the city, might make him actually look like a criminal, which was a bad idea. But without the sunglasses he still looked like a blue hedgehog, coat and hat nonwithstanding, and he figured that, all things considered, that was a worse idea.  
More worrying at this point was Niles, who Sonic noticed was finding it more difficult by the minute to sustain a realistic-looking smile. Such a nervous fellow was he, and so stressed by his unwilling role in Sonic's enterprise, that his mood was dropping below the threshold of what was safe in the City of Clouds. Every so often Sonic would glance at him and see a scowl on his face, which posed an unspeakable risk. The outside-world equivalent would be if you walked around in public with a nervous look on your face and one hand reaching inside the breast of your coat. It doesn't necessarily mean that you're a threat, but there's a much greater than comfortable chance that you are. Chance enough to cause riots in certain places. Stratosphereon was definitely one of those places. Sonic jabbed Niles roughly whenever he saw that scowl, and each time the fox remembered himself and reverted back to that tried-and-tested false atmosphere of contentedness that he had perfected over the years of living here. Each time Sonic hoped that they hadn't brought attention to themselves. He was sure that the libria treatment dulled the senses and made people less observant, he even thought he was beginning to be able to spot the difference between the drugged people and the lucid ones, but he also knew that many of these people hadn't been treated at all. He wondered how many of them were like Niles, following his philosophy of 'getting along to get along', and how many of them slipped into bad moods occasionally and had to closely monitor their own facial expressions in public. Sonic was more concerned by the idea that some of these people might be 'plants', undercover agents of Libria whose entire job was to walk around watching people's faces and actions. He didn't know whether or not such people existed at all, but the possibility haunted him. He wondered whether Snortzworth realised that, ironically, Libria had created the very atmosphere of paranoia and intense stress that actually bred some of the worst villains in history. Morbidly, he wondered what the statistics of impulse murder sprees was like in Stratosphereon. He decided he didn't want to know.  
Right now, his mission was to root out Cinos, and it was a mission that required the services of Niles Wilkinson-Price. Niles, although bitter about his involvement, was smart enough to recognise the fact that he was, like it or not, irrevocably involved. Consciously, he knew he had been ever since he freed Sonic from his impending corrective treatment. But a part of him, even deeper, knew that he had been long before that. This insight had come to him through some kind of mental percolation of knowledge in the course of his joining with Sonic, a phenomenon he still couldn't understand, but that he trusted implicitly, much to his distaste. It didn't mean he had to like it.  
Each block of living quarters, like massive apartment buildings (though they were more like dormitories than apartments) had a reception area at the ground level. Although laborious, neither could think of a quicker way to track down Cinos than to interrogate the people in the reception as to whether they had seen Cinos, or even Rasputan. People were happy enough to oblige the questions if they claimed to be trying to track down a friend, but it was Niles who had to ask the questions, while Sonic worked on not drawing attention to himself.  
Their victory, therefore, was a product of irony, for it was outside one of these buildings where Sonic briefly removed his hat to scratch at his quills, and one of the building's receptionists, on his lunch break, smiled and waved at him.  
"Good morning, Mr Sharpe, hope you're having a marvellous day"  
Sonic was caught by surprise, but after a moment he realised the inconspicuous thing to do was to wave back and offer a return greeting. Cinos himself would be likely to flip him off when his back was turned, but Sonic didn't go so far to imitate his clone's etiquette.  
He instructed Niles to drop the name Kinnos Sharpe with the reception, and at last they had a room number for Sonic's evil twin. The next step - confrontation - was the more daunting, especially for Niles. Sonic had warned him that Cinos might just as soon try to murder them on sight than look at them, and the fox had said "Oh, jolly good," with a sarcastic flick of his head.  
Cinos was in Suite 184, and Sonic wasn't really at all surprised to discover it - he and Espio had taken Suite 481 of another building. The hedgehog and the fox stood outside the closed door and stared in silence at the polished number. A sign was hung on the doorknob.  
'PLEASE BE CONSIDERATE! We're a little busy. Have a libric day'  
"Perhaps we should come back later," Niles suggested. Sonic looked at his face to see if he was serious, and noted - again, no surprise - that he was.  
"You're not scared of him, are you?" Sonic asked.  
"If I've ever given you the impression that I'm not a coward, dear hedgehog," Niles replied, "Then I apologise"  
"Let's just do this thing, okay? The longer we stand here, the more chance that he'll take us by surprise rather than the other way around"  
Niles sighed, raised his fist and held it there for a moment. Sonic was almost sure that he wouldn't follow through, but then the fox rapped politely three times on the door and stepped back.  
For a time that was longer than comfortable, not the faintest sound emanated from within the room.  
"I suppose he isn't at home," Niles whispered.  
"If you believed that, you wouldn't be whispering," Sonic replied, "He's home, all right. That's what worries me. Knock again"  
Niles closed his eyes and knocked, louder and clearer.  
Sonic almost thought that they would again hear no response, and that perhaps they had been tricked after all, maybe even lured into a trap, but then that gravelly voice, full of menace and yet eerily like his own, called from the other side of the door.  
"Who is it"  
Not a frustrated demand, but a polite and non-threatening inquiry. Even Cinos had learned how to compose himself in Stratosphereon.  
"What do I say?" Niles whispered.  
"You're the super of the building and you need to talk to him," Sonic replied.  
"I say, sir," Niles called into Cinos' room, "It's the superintendent, I have a matter of some urgency that I need to discuss with you forthwith." He paused, and then added, "I do apologise for the untimeliness of this business, you being preoccupied as I can see that you are, and rest assured that I wouldn't"  
The door opened a crack, and Cinos' wild eyes peered through from the inside. "What?" the hedgehog demanded.  
"Good sir," Niles said, but then he gulped and hesitated. Cinos' eyes stared through him as though he were barely even there, slowly narrowing, and Niles had picked a certain amount of information about the dark hedgehog's character up from Sonic's mind. He could tell, from the chaotic glint in those eyes, that Cinos wanted badly to slit him wide open where he stood. Probably would, in fact, if his chances of getting away with it were a little higher. It had been a long time since Niles had seen murder in another mobian's eyes. He had fled from evil for so long that he had forgotten what it looked like.  
Sonic jabbed him in the side, and he found some courage, though he knew not from where.  
"Good sir. I'm afraid there has been an... irregularity, concerning your living arrangements. I know this is wretchedly inconvenient, but I must ask if you could fill out some documents pertaining to your continued residence at"  
"I won't be living here much longer," Cinos said.  
"Oh," the fox replied, "Well that, um. Well"  
"Is there anything else?" Cinos asked, and when it appeared Niles had no response, he began to close the door.  
"Wait"  
"What"  
The hedgehog's ability to sustain his guise of tolerance was slipping, and soon he would probably be unable to control his anger. Niles saw it in his eyes, and Sonic heard it in his voice.  
The fox cleared his throat. "Well, uh... well, in light of the frightful clerical error that has led to this confusion, it is my duty and delight to offer you a full refund for the total amount paid to us by you for your living arrangements. I have it for you right here"  
Cinos measured him up and down, and Sonic thought for a moment that he didn't believe Niles' story and would not open the door. However, and regardless of whether Niles had actually planned this (he later would insist he had), there was one important detail of this story that made it almost irresistable for Cinos: The prospect of being given money. To Sonic's dismay he didn't open the door after all, but rather than retreat altogether, he reached through the crack and put his hand out for his promised refund. Good enough.  
Sonic grabbed the door handle and as hard as he could, his feet against the wall for leverage, he slammed the door on Cinos' arm.  
The dark hedgehog wailed and fell back, allowing Sonic to kick it open all the way and barrel through into Cinos' suite. He tackled his twin as he thrashed and snarled, and a fierce charge of static cracked through him. He feared that it was a powerful enough shock to stop his heart, and for a moment he reeled. Cinos, fury beyond imagining creating a roadmap of wrath upon his face, lunged. Sonic felt a fresh burst of pain as something slashed his arm, a dart of blood splashing across the carpet in a crimson streak, and he grabbed Cinos by the wrist moments before his dark twin could stab him in the throat with his dripping dagger.  
"_I knew it was you brother I knew it I knew it I knew it!"_ Cinos shrieked. Sonic's palm burned where he held Cinos by the wrist, and crackles of static, seemingly intensified by his twin's rage, needled him wherever else their bodies mingled. The gash on his arm sent fiery telegraphs of pain through his shoulder and to his head. Cinos, unmindful of the painful energies coursing between them from their contact, made furious digging gestures with his dagger, struggling to overcome Sonic's strength and gouge the weapon through his twin's jugular. But Sonic and he were equals in that department, and though neither he or the other could throw one another off, Sonic managed to wriggle from Cinos' grasp and bolt to the other end of the room, away from the deadly sharp weapon.  
Both hedgehogs stood across from each other, panting and clutching their injured arms in exactly the same manner; Sonic his right and Cinos his left. Reflections of one another, as though you could ever doubt it.  
Rasputan stood in a corner of the room, an expression on his face that Sonic couldn't quite read. Shock? Horror? Or just insanity?  
"I wondered if you'd given up," Cinos spat, "Thought you'd gone home. Thought you'd run back to your happy tree friends to make some more daisy chains. I'd be impressed if I wasn't so busy hating you. My heroic, shallow-minded brother from the otherverse"  
"You think I don't want to go home?" Sonic asked. "Believe me, there's nothing I'd like more"  
"Then go, don't let me stop you. Run away home"  
"You first"  
"No actually, I think I'll stay"  
"You can't win this, Cinos"  
Cinos laughed at this. A genuine laugh, none of his usual biting conceit. It almost seemed a joyful laugh, although Sonic knew that what Cinos registered as joy wasn't even in the same galaxy as his own emotional responses.  
"You're used to winning, aren't you," Cinos said, "Sure, why not? You're good, my brother. You _always _win. You mop the _floor_ with Eggman and his cronies, no sweat. Aliens are coming to blow up the world? Who you gonna call? The blue blur, Sonic the Freakin' Hedgehog, that's who. But this is not like everything else you've done, Sonic. I'm used to winning, as well. Who wins in a fight between two opponents who never lose"  
"The one doing the right thing," Sonic replied without hesitation.  
"Pre-programmed response, Sonic, groundless, meaningless, unsubstantiated bullpucky. What, did you hear that on a Saturday morning cartoon show? You're smarter than that, brother, _we're _smarter than that. Think carefully, and really _think_ this time, with your head and not your butt. How many times have you gone up against me and actually _won _since we set out on this little road trip? Who's collecting all the runes and who's eating all the dust"  
Sonic knew the answer but said nothing, trying to formulate a scathing retort to knock Cinos off his soapbox. As so often happens at times like these, he could think of nothing and succeeded only in looking defeated. Rasputan was laughing like a hyena.  
"It's not a trick question, Sonic," Cinos said, "It's very simple. Who wins in a fight between two opponents who never lose"  
This time, he didn't wait for Sonic to answer. He answered the question himself, with a bitter scowl. "The one," he said, "With nothing _to_ lose"  
As though the dark hedgehog's line were some kind of cosmic cue in a universal stage show, the lights in the building were suddenly extinguished, plunging everything into near total darkness. The only light that reached them filtered in through the windows from outside, but it was clearly dimming at an unnatural rate. "**Libria has been breeched**" commanded the God-voice of Stratosphereon, "**You will not loiter. You will not delay**."

XX

Judge Snortzworth was forty-two and unhealthy. The last doctor he consulted told him that his life expectancy was somewhere close to fifty, that being the age that his fatal cholesterol-fuelled heart attack would strike, but that he wouldn't live to see it because the stress-fuelled heart attack was waiting for him around the neighbourhood of forty-five. Nevertheless, Snortzworth was never one to let medical advice come between him and his fried chicken. The Judge was biting into a finely marinated leg of poultry when the news came through on his desktop monitor that a code sixteen Libria Breech had occurred, and that all systems were awaiting his command.  
It took quite a while for him to figure out what a code sixteen was, precisely. It was not a number that came up too often. And there was little doubt why - a code sixteen was a prison break. A successful escape, too, not merely an attempt. There had been attempts in the past, but never a single escape.  
Snortzworth's blood pressure went up.  
The hedgehog. He knew it without even having to check. Nothing had run smoothly in Stratosphereon since the hedgehog had arrived and decided to deface their museum. Snortzworth wished he'd never laid eyes on the offlander and his reptillian friend. Things were not supposed to happen this way, they weren't supposed to happen this way at all.  
Snortzworth, frowning and cursing, commanded the Adroits to proceed, and this time to hold no punches. Once the hedgehog was neutralised, libria would return to his utopia, and the poisons of the hard world would leave Stratosphereon alone, if not forever than for long enough.

XXI

"**Stratosphereon is in lockdown. Illibria has been declared. Adroits will be released promptly. You will not loiter. Libria will be restored. You will not delay**."  
"They're going to get me!" Niles wailed, "They're coming for me and they're going to put me so deep in libria that I won't be able to feel anything below my neck! Why oh why did I agree to this witchery"  
But neither of the hedgehogs paid any attention to him. Sonic and Cinos stared each other down in the rapidly dimming light.  
"You see what you've started," Sonic said, "If you just gave them the rune back, they might even decide not to drug you up so much that you'll be making daisy-chains for the rest of your life. I wonder, what would the libria treatment do to someone who's miserable when he's happy and only happy when he's miserable"  
"A question for the ages, dear brother, such a shame we'll never find out. So how's about a little game of murder in the dark? I'm game." He waved his dagger in the air, and that was the last thing that Sonic saw before the light vanished and all that was left were the sounds in the room and the wailing of the city siren.  
Sonic moved straight away, knowing full well that his clone's first move would be to stab at the place where Sonic had been, and sure enough he heard the swooshing of Cinos' dagger and the passionate breath of a murderer engaged in his hobby. Although Sonic avoided a messy end this moment, he also managed to unblock the path to the door, which Cinos promptly used to escape the premises. Sonic heard frenzied footsteps and then an irritated grunt and a thump that could only be Cinos colliding with a wall, then feeling his way down the hall as fast as he was able. Sonic moved to persue him, but he was grabbed from behind by a strong hand. A burst of light that hurt Sonic's eyes filled the room, and when his pupils adjusted he saw that Rasputan stood there, holding what appeared to be a very bright-burning candle in one hand and Sonic's arm in the other.  
"He iwill/i succeed, Billy-Blue," the porcupine said, a hopelessly insane glint in his too-wide eyes, and he chortled that half-idiot laugh that Sonic had come to associate with him more than anything else. "The big K, he's going all the way. The Stones are gonna rocket that 'hog straight up the tower and furnish a room for him at the tippy-top"  
Sonic slapped the crazed porcupine out of his way. "If that happens then you're as dead as I am, you fruitcake"  
"Oh, maybe, maybe, maybe. Maybe not. Either way, it'll happen, it's predestined." Rasputan's hands trembled, and Sonic couldn't tell if it was excitement, fear or something else entirely. "_They_ showed me," he said, "The keepers of the Old Ways, the Hidden Ones, they showed me the truth and I saw it with my own two peepers. The Universe and the Antiverse stand apart for five thousand years, and on the final day, a leader draped in blue stands atop a lake of fire with the Whitewyrm coiled around his body. He takes the powers of a thousand generations into himself, and it is he who remakes the world"  
"Fairy tales," Sonic snapped.  
All at once he heard the buzzing of the Adroits outside the window, saw their silhouettes on the blinds, bathed in the ambience of their strobelights.  
"All true," Rasputan said, "Every word, every breath. You can't stop it. I'm smart, see." He tapped his head. "I'm a bright spark, my Ma always said so. I go with the grain, make the most of the inevitable"  
"I don't work that way," Sonic said, and snatched the candle from the raving porcupine. "Thanks"  
He spun around and bolted for the door before Rasputan could grab him again. Niles, it seemed, had already fled, and Cinos had probably made it a great deal further, although the darkness would have slowed him down and now he himself had a notable advantage over his identical foe, a very ambient candle made out of what looked like blackened animal fat with a stiff black wick that might have been magnesium or something similar. The building was filled with long, flickering shadows, any of which could easily be hiding Cinos, dagger in hand. Sonic wasn't even sure what he intended to do with Cinos once he caught him, but one thing was for certain: If he could end this today, he wasn't about to snub the chance. He wasn't sure he believed that Rasputan's prophecies were anything more than the delusions of a clearly deranged lunatic, but that didn't mean he was going to let Cinos stand atop a lake of fire anytime soon, wyrm or none. The prospect of the dishonourable Kinnos Sharpe esquire being elected the architect of the universe never grew any more appealing.  
Sonic rushed down flight after flight of stairs, ever mindful that a blue leg could at any time slip out of the shadows to trip him and break his neck. But somehow he was almost sure that (ladies and gentlemen) Cinos had left the building.  
Stratosphereon was in total darkness, but this time Sonic was not helpless. He carried with him the bright-burning candle of Cinos' witch-doctor companion, and the flame bathed the city in an ethereal light. He felt like an archeologist descending into the heart of some ancient tomb.  
When he reached the lobby of the apartment building, he momentarily spotted Cinos standing in the doorway and looking back. When the dark hedgehog spotted his twin descending the stairwell, he shouted a curse and ran into the street. Sonic increased his speed, although he knew that racing his brother was akin to a greyhound racing a mechanical rabbit - good for exercise, but little more.  
The moment Sonic exited the building and entered the street, he saw the Adroits rounding the corner in persuit, their strobe lights flooding the street with a brightness so intense that his eyes hurt to look at it. They were more than dumb robots, he could tell by their movements, they saw him and they saw his light, the only light in Stratosphereon not emitted by an Adroit, and they came toward him like insects attracted by a flame. Hundreds of patrolling droids, united on his trail. They were fast and agile, difficult to lose. He thought he heard one of them announce that **Source of illibria has been identified** and **Disparity will be removed**. Somehow he didn't think their idea of removal would be a very pleasant experience this time. It wasn't difficult to figure out Stratosphereon's policy for when the libria treatment didn't work.  
Cinos remained just out of Sonic's reach, running ahead and every so often looking back to see whether he had lost his twin. But Sonic was determined not to be lost, for this time his evil twin would not evade him. Cinos' assertions were wrong, they had to be. Sonic would win this time, the forces of evil could never be so powerful as Cinos believed. Everything Sonic had observed over the past years contradicted it.  
Cinos seemed to know where he was going. He weaved through alleys and backstreets as though he knew Stratosphereon like the back of his hand. Sonic knew that the light from his candle was probably, ironically, the only thing allowing Cinos to make his way through the city so easily. But the prospect of extinguishing the light source and losing his twin completely, probably being captured and 'removed' by the Adroits as par for course, was far worse than the alternative. He didn't know where Cinos was headed, but he couldn't run forever.  
Soon, Cinos entered a building rather than passing it by. Sonic couldn't tell in the poor light what kind of building it was, but he stepped inside nevertheless. He closed the door behind him to muffle the maddening buzz of the Adroits, and then lifted the candle and squinted to see where he was in the poor light. It was only now that he realised that the candle was dimming quickly. Soon it would fail entirely, and he would be left to himself, and at the mercy of the forbidding darkness, alone with his evil twin.

Rasputan stood atop the roof of the apartment building, a circle of candles burning around him, chewing on his nails and hopping from foot to foot, cackling like a child on the morning of his birthday.  
"The time of the Final Awakening is come!" he screamed into the darkness, "The last days! All will fall to their knees before the glory of the almighty Kinnos Sharpe, remaker of the Universe! Reformer of the Antiverse! The time is nigh, and no mortal on this world or any other has the power to stop it"  
With these words, he danced. Rasputan danced like two parts lunatic and one part witch, arms flailing and feet stomping as he danced around the circle of candles that flickered innocently in the stillness.

Sonic squinted when his light source extinguished itself, but no amount of squinting could allow him to see in an environment of zero light. The building he was in seemed suddenly very small and suffocating. It was unnerving how the loss of vision could render a person completely helpless, and he did not pity the blind, those unfortunate few who spent every day of their lives in a state of permanant night.  
"Cinos!" he shouted into the dark, although he thought it was probably a bad idea. He heard the Adroits somewhere behind him, outside, their searchlights hidden behind the walls. Sonic yearned for those lights, but at the same time he knew that he was doomed if he saw them again.

Rasputan danced in the imposed darkness of Stratosphereon's false night, twirling and kicking out his feet as he laughed and sang in what may have been a foreign dialect or might have been gibberish. His dance was a celebration of victory, for the Hidden Ones had shown him what lay ahead, and what lay ahead was the end of all things. Three more runes lay buried, soon to be recovered by He who would bring about the Apocalypse. And then... then...

A bright light filled the large room where Sonic stood, and he dropped his useless candle and fell back on his haunches, sheilding his eyes. The light itself was an ironic kind of darkness, for it filled everything with white while illuminating nothing. His eyes ached and hid like timid animals behind his closed eyelids as he cried out and clapped a hand over his face. But Sonic knew that such a cowardly action made him nothing more than a sitting duck, and slowly he opened his eyes. As his pupils adjusted to the light, he slowly made out familiar shapes around him. The building was large and open, a massive warehouse of sorts, a  
(hangar)  
and the horrible lights that seemed all around him shrank to two points, two strobe lights on the front of a green camoflage-patterned biplane, an aircraft that was slowly rolling toward him.  
...Rasputan threw his arms up and shouted to the Old Gods, fanning his fingers out, the many rings that adorned them sparkling in the candle-light.  
...and shelves of weapons lined the sides of the hanger, as numerous as the bookshelves that lined the walls of Niles' beloved library, pistols and machine-guns and automatic weapons of every kind, and Sonic thought ithis was what Stratosphereon was like before Libria, heck, this is probably what it took to create Libria, a blood-soaked war of kindness, and what was the City of Clouds like before the revolution that transformed it into the zombie-city it was today/i But before he could ponder this too deeply, the plane that rolled toward him opened fire, a deafening storm of bullets that poured in a deathwave from the gun mounted below the propellor, and Sonic just barely had time to duck out of the way before.  
...the lunatic dance reached its climax, Rasputan laughing and screaming into the sky, cursing whatever deity sat upon His mighty throne in that dark beyond, vowing that His time was short.  
...and the plane turned as Sonic rolled, and the hedgehog realised he had precious little room to move about in this hangar, he was trapped like an animal in a cage, and the biplane opened fire again, ratta-ratta-ratta, Sonic heard the bullets ricocheting off the concrete and striking other planes with a metallic 'ping'. Sonic rolled again, passing just under the gun's range, feeling the rush of wind caused by the bullets ripping through the air just above him, and as he picked himself up he saw the plane begin to turn again.  
...and as he danced he laughed and snarled and screamed, his wicked grin fierce enough to frighten the angels on their thrones and intimidate the demons who stalked in the shadows.  
...and as the plane passed Sonic with a final hail of bullets, Cinos rose from the cockpit, scowling, aiming a pistol with one hand as he steered with the other. "Die, Sonic!" he screamed, and fired the gun twice, missing his target with both shots, but this time he didn't turn to find his target again. The plane rolled straight, and there was an explosive ripping sound as the aircraft plowed through the wall of the hangar. The Adroits that waited on the other side were blown out of the sky, either by a hail of bullets or collision with the plane that seemed to be indestructable.  
...as he danced, Rasputan saw a point of light rise above the rooftops, and knew that it was not the robot guards of this city, but the Destroyer of Worlds, come to resume his mission and reclaim what was his. The porcupine slung the bag of runes over his shoulder and screamed unintelligably at the growing light, waving his arms and jumping up and down.  
...and Sonic could only watch as the biplane, piloted by his clone enemy, scooped Rasputan up as it passed over the rooftops, and then turned, as though to take another shot at Sonic. But instead it passed overhead, its propellor whirring and chopping, and flew straight at the darkness that encapsulated the city. Sonic thought it would crash, and that was fine - and it did crash, but that did not stop it. He watched as a hole smashed open in the sky, the blackness of the city's dome opening up to the brilliant blue of the daylight outside. The city lit up suddenly and magnificently, it's cloak of darkness torn apart, and the biplane vanished into the cloudless blue beyond. He almost didn't notice when the Adroits surrounded him. It was the buzzing that alerted him to their presence, before they set their spotlights upon him, perhaps fifty or sixty in all. He squinted into their unbearably bright lights, turning in a small circle, and then sat on the concrete, legs crossed and head in his hands.

XXII

"You have made a mistake," Snortzworth spat; he grasped Sonic's arm just below the shoulder, and dragged him along, although Sonic was trying to go willingly. The Judge was considerably taller than him, and he almost picked the hedgehog up as he dragged him.  
"A very bad mistake. Or perhaps it was I who made the mistake, not doing this in the first place"  
"Taking me to the firing squad, Governor?" Sonic asked.  
"We do not execute people in Stratosphereon," Snortzworth replied, "There has never been a prisoner we could not rehabilitate"  
"If that's how you'd like to refer to it"  
Sonic was taken to the Realignment Centre in Libria and into a cell. He barely had time to register the fact that Espio and Niles were here also, before Snortzworth chucked him with a powerful over-arm throw into the small open room.  
Not so open any more, though. Two Adroits with more than a passing resemblance to SWAT-bots guarded the way out, and Sonic figured he would be a fool to think for even a moment that they were the only ones.  
"You will be pioneers," the Judge said, "You should feel privelaged. We are about to explore just how deep a mobian can be put under the libria treatment without brain damage"  
"I'm excited," Sonic said.  
Judge Snortzworth turned and left the complex, leaving behind the robot guards who stared coldly into the cell.  
"This is so cool!" Espio exclaimed, and by his smile, one could almost be forgiven for thinking somebody had just told him he'd won a billion dollars in the Libria Sweepstakes. "Did you guys hear that? We're gonna be pioneers"  
"How long is he going to be like this?" Sonic asked. He rubbed his sore arm where Snortzworth had clutched him; a little higher, the gash from Cinos' dagger had begun to bleed again. He was lucky, as it didn't appear to be deep enough to require stitches.  
"I'm sure I don't know," Niles replied glumly, "I hardly think it matters. In ten minutes we're not going to care much, anyway"  
"We're not licked yet," Sonic said, glancing around madly. This couldn't be the end of the road, it simply couldn't be. He'd escaped from worse situations in his time.  
"Well I do wish you'd let me in on precisely how we're going to get out of it, dear hedgehog, without me to 'bail you out' so to speak. I can't believe I thought for a second that helping you was going to garner any other result, and now I'm in the same boat"  
"Look, there is a way out of this," Sonic replied, "But it's very dangerous. _Very_ dangerous"  
"Oh, of that I have no doubt," Niles replied, "I have an inkling that being tangled up with you is simply one thrill after another"  
Sonic looked into Niles' eyes. "I'm not sure I can win this fight without you. I haven't been told the rules, I'm just going with my gut. But one thing I won't do is make you follow me against your will. Where we're going is dangerous, and as far as danger is concerned, I have a feeling it's only going to get worse. But I already made a promise to Espio that the place where I come from is a better place than where he was from, it's better than here as well, it's safe and warm and friendly, and it's waiting for me at the end of this journey, unless death is instead. If you come with me and we live through all of this, I'll take you there, both of you. Knothole isn't without its perils, it's no utopia and we have our share of enemies, but every single last mobian in that village is family. I'm asking a lot, I know, and the place we're going next isn't pretty"  
"No worse than this," Niles muttered, "What choice do I have"  
"Will you come with us"  
"Will I regret it"  
"I can't say"  
Niles sighed and looked up at the Adroits standing guard outside the cell. Soon, libria would come. Then, a bliss so intense that it can only ever be glimpsed in one's worst nightmares.  
"Yes, dear hedgehog, loathe as I am to say this, I will come with you"  
"Then hold my hand"  
Niles was hesitant at first. Hold his hand? Did the hedgehog intend to _fly_ them both out of the City of Clouds, just shoot off like a comic book superhero? But stranger things had happened, he supposed, and all he had to do was remember when Sonic had explored his mind to realise that there was more than one way to travel in this world.  
He grasped Sonic's hand, and saw that Espio had one arm around the hedgehog's shoulder, and Sonic appeared almost to be supporting the grinning, bopping chameleon who might have been drunk if not libric. And Sonic's eyes were closed - softly, not squinting, as though he was trying to go to sleep. His head lolled, as though to confirm this.  
Niles was struck by the sudden certainty that Sonic had no method by which to break them out of Stratosphereon, and he knew it. For precisely what reason Sonic had wanted them to hold his hand, he couldn't quite say - seeking some form of comfort, perhaps? - but he humoured the hedgehog and allowed him this final act of free will, squeezing a little and feeling Sonic squeeze back. He looked at Espio, his drug induced state of calm unbreakable by any stress of this world, and imagined how it would feel to finally be free of any kind of worry. His only hope was that Snortzworth's threat of brain damage was unfounded.  
The Judge entered the prison complex again, flanked by three other mobians in white coats. Their occupations weren't too far removed from those of anesthetists: they were the ones who mixed and applied the libria treatment. Snortzworth and the three doctors began to set up the monitoring equipment, one of the doctors held up a syringe to the light and squirted a little water out of the end.  
Who would be the first, Niles wondered? There was a faint breeze blowing through the cell, and he shivered a little. It took him a moment to realise that there was no window in the Realignment Centre, and the doors had been closed. The breeze was an unexplainable anomoly.  
"You will feel a sting, and then a cold rush," one of the doctors said, "There will be a moment of nausea, but it will pass. Then you will feel a great happiness"  
The breeze was strong enough to be unmistakable, now. It was very cold, and bizarrely seemed to be rushing in one direction, ithrough the walls/i, rather than around them. Where was this wind coming from? And there was more. Dampness? He felt like he was getting wet, his fur matting down against his body. Niles felt dizzy, and grasped Sonic's hand harder.  
The doctor was about to say something else, but the message caught in his throat. The four of them were looking into the cell with expressions that may have been anything from horror to sheer fascination, if not both.  
"It's the hedgehog!" Snortzworth shrieked, "He's the one"  
The syringe dropped to the floor and shattered.  
The wind was rushing past with such force, now, and Niles saw his fur blowing fiercely, noticing also that nothing else in the room showed any sign at all of feeling even the slightest breeze. The doctors' hair remained neatly combed and still, but Niles felt as though his own might rip itself out of his skull by the roots, such was the force of the gale. He was wet, saturated, but saw nothing else getting even remotely damp.  
"Get them apart!" Snortzworth screamed, "Don't just stand there, hold them still, _hold them down!"_  
One of the doctors broke his rigid stance and leaped toward Niles, grabbing his wrist. But he didn't quite. The doctor's hand went _through_ Niles' flesh, slowly, as though he had tried to grab a stick of soft wax and squeezed too tight. Niles expected his arm to have been squashed like dough, but it was completely intact. The doctor grabbed only air, and now Snortzworth's screams were muffled and far away. All he could hear was Espio laughing and whooping, and all he could feel was that wind, blowing so hard now, and there was more - gravity. It pulled at him so hard he thought he was going to fall right through the floor.  
And that's exactly what he did.  
Finally he broke his hold on Sonic's hand, as he was ripped downward, out of the prison cell, out of Libria, out of Stratosphereon. The City of Clouds faded and vanished as though it had never existed in the first place, and he was free-falling through some kind of thick, smokey air.  
Thunder roared. The wind played with him like a rag doll, and the rain was like bullets. It had not been raining when they had been trapped in Stratosphereon, the sky had been blue and clear mere minutes ago. This was a madness that Niles wasn't sure he could handle.  
Finally, after what felt like an eternity of falling, he landed in water. Black, viscous water, wild with the storm. He was picked up and thrown, again and again, dashed against the waves. Thunder threatened to burst his ears.  
And yet he heard Sonic's voice, like a distant beacon, barely audible over the crashing of the storm and the ocean. "_Land!_" the hedgehog screamed, "_Land! Swim towards the land_!"  
Niles didn't know which direction the land was, but he swam nevertheless. He swam as well as one could be expected to when one was drowning in something that was almost, but not quite, water, thrown about by the worst storm to hit Mobius since the planet was young.  
The water crashed, the thunder roared. Lightning carved apart the sky. Niles swam, all the while thinking that this wasn't quite as much fun as a cup of earl gray and a nice muffin. No, not quite.

XXIII

The storm was immortal. Sonic figured that it had raged for a hundred years and might rage for a hundred more, in this section of the world. It was stronger than they; attempting to wait out the weather would be fruitless, for the weather was far more patient.  
The three of them took shelter in a beach cave, far enough out to shore that the crashing tide couldn't reach them. Rain flowed in buckets from the cliffs above onto the eroded beach, and the mouth of the cave seemed almost to be curtained by a waterfall.  
Sonic removed his soaked gloves and rubbed his hands together. The water was oily, a little sticky too. It didn't just seem dark from the lack of light, it was actually iblack/i. A black ocean, terrorised by a never-ending storm. The rain was dark, too. This part of the world was very sick.  
Niles stood in the mouth of the cave, squinting into the vortex of cloud above, shielding his face from the rain and the wind with one hand, concentrating madly. Sonic knew what he was looking for.  
"It's not there," he said, "Stratosphereon is gone. It doesn't exist in this world"  
"What do you mean _this world_?" Niles demanded, still searching the skies, "Of course it exists, where do you think we've just come from"  
"It's still up there. It's we who've travelled. Have you ever seen anything even remotely like this on the Mobius you know?" He gestured to the crashing waves of the black, sick ocean.  
"Well, if we're not on Mobius, dear hedgehog, please enlighten me as to where we are"  
"We're on a version of Mobius. A bad one. A sick one. This is the world that made Cinos"  
"That was _fun_!" Espio exclaimed, "Hey, let's do that _again!_"  
"Never in my lifetime," Niles snapped back, "How long are we going to stay in this sick world, pray tell"  
"No longer than absolutely necessary," Sonic replied, "Just let me rest a while. It's easier to slide back into your own world"  
"And then"  
"And then we push on. We have a long way to go"  
The three travellers sheltered from the storm, and even slept a while amidst the cacophony of thunder. For they did indeed have a long way to go, and the world would be as hard as it had ever been.

---

NILES The Fourth Interlude

I've travelled the world from sea to sea and seen remarkable things,  
The falls of empires, the rise of mountains, the legacies of kings,  
But never again in all my life have I been able to find,  
One who ran away so much his life was undermined.

His lived with such a horrid past, one he tried to flee,  
And tried to outrun all his fears by moving constantly,  
But no mind how far he ran, and no mind how fast,  
He found that there just is no way for to escape the past.

I met him on my travels once, a creature full of fear,  
He could not be alone at night (there may be monsters near),  
And although he ran to make him feel better inside,  
There was nowhere in the world where monsters didn't hide.

I asked him, "What was done to you to make you fear the world"  
He said "I have seen some things that would make your hair curl,  
I do not have the strength to face the horrors of this life,  
I just want to live in peace, away from all this strife."

I said, "But Weak of Will, how do you live with such a threat?  
Surely, always running is a lifestyle you'll regret"  
He replied, "Nobody taught me how to face up to my fears,  
And so I never had the experience of my peers."

I've travelled this globe all over, oh the lessons I have learned,  
The cultures I have visited, great empires overturned,  
But what a lesson I have learned from one who couldn't stand and fight,  
And so lived an entire life running away from plight.


	5. Five: Day of the Supervillains

AWAKENING  
S Peter Davis

All characters (C) SEGA, Archie and SP Davis 2004 (unless otherwise noted).  
Used without permission

* * *

Five:  
Day of the Supervillains

* * *

This is it now,  
Everybody get down,  
This is all I can take,  
This is how a heart breaks.

- Rob Thomas

Oh no, not you again.

- Australian Crawl

* * *

DISCOURAGEMENT

I

"Well, I hope you're happy," Niles Wilkinson-Price said bitterly, his arms folded across his chest, "We have officially located the most insignificant whistle-stop hick town this side of the Westerican border. _Five weeks_ we've been on this road, _five weeks_, and for what? Anticlimax of the blinking century. If this is a one horse town, then the horse died of loneliness."  
"Don't blame me," Sonic replied, "I picked this place out of _your_ brain. Besides, I'm sure this isn't all of it. This is probably just an... outer suburb."  
"Nope." Espio said, rounding the corner to meet them, "This is the whole deal. Welcome to Desolation, guys, biggest little town south of nowhere and east of nothing. For the first time since we left the Crux Desert, I feel at home."  
"Peh! Desolation is right!" Niles said, "The only name more appropriate would be 'Cesspit'... or perhaps 'Trashcan'."  
Espio whispered in Sonic's ear, "Whose idea was it to bring this guy?"  
Sonic just shook his head. "He's just not an outdoors guy, that's all. He just needs-"  
Niles threw his arms up and screamed at the sky. "_Why, God? Why do you mock me?_"  
"-to get... to get accustomed to things. That's all."

II

(You may see their trunks arching in the woods years afterwards, trailing their leaves on the ground)

The journey after Stratosphereon, the City of Clouds, had been at once easier and more difficult than it had been before. For the first time since leaving home, Sonic had completely lost his twin's trail - Cinos might have been anywhere on Mobius, for all he knew or cared, for his desire to see his otherworldly twin again this side of Judgement Day was remote to zilch. They would cross paths again, of this Sonic was certain, but Cinos' absence to persue business elsewhere was at least a temporary reprieve for Sonic, who was looking forward to fighting his brother from a distance for a while.  
No matter what Cinos was doing or where, Sonic was for the first time privy to knowledge that had been denied him thus far: He knew where to find one of the Runes of Awakening. He wished that he might have known the locations of all of them, but even just one was an exciting breakthrough. There were five stones in all, and only two had ever been found and documented by science. Cinos had stolen one of these in Stratosphereon, as well as one of the unfound runes, which had been kept by the Chameleon Cabal in their underground chambers. Two were still buried somewhere, but one had been dug up and written about, and Sonic knew this because Niles had known this. Not exactly consciously, but Niles was a very avid reader, and most of the information he had picked up in the course of his life was still catalogued in his mind, in one form or another. Few computers in the world could rival the mobian brain in terms of information storage capacity; it was memory that was below standard. If any one person could bring forth every piece of information he kept in his mind at any one time, his sanity would likely suffer.  
The method by which Sonic had accessed this information was one that he still couldn't explain, and didn't like to think about it for very long. All he knew was that he and Niles - and Espio, too, by the same token - had shared a very powerful bond. More powerful than any of them.

(Like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair before them over their heads to dry in the sun.)

Their escape from the City of Clouds had required their slippage into the antiverse, an experience that wasn't particularly pleasant for any of them. Sonic found to his dismay that one could not slide twice in quick succession, at least not without some degree of practice that he simply did not possess, having slid only twice under his own power. The immortal storm raged on for the two days that they were stuck in the antiverse, Sonic trying desperately to gather the focus required to get back. By the end of the second day, both he and Niles were beginning to worry that their passage back to familiar territory was in some way prohibited, and that they would have to brave the storm for however far it raged, which was almost certainly too far. But finally Sonic managed to break the membrane of time and space, to slide back through the four-dimensional curtain that seperated these twin worlds from each other, and mercifully, the sky was blue on the other side. The clean, blue ocean of their native universe lapped against a white, fluffy beach, seagulls squawking and diving into the sand for crabs. Sonic and his allies screamed at each other unnecessarily for hours while they grew accustomed to the absence of the concert hall roar of rain and thunder every moment of the day and night.  
But there was another problem. One that was becoming a growing weight on Sonic's mind. Espio had fallen victim to the so-called libria treatment in Stratosphereon, a drug-induced state of unnatural and unbreakable mirth and contentedness. The chameleon's behaviour was two parts flower-child and one part acid-trip, irrational and unbearable. The sickening thought that began to occur to Sonic was that the libria drug was irreversible, that Espio had been forever ruined by the wayward, unethical and highly illegal practices of the City of Clouds' governing body. Between Espio's intolerable happiness and Niles' intolerable misery, the first week back on the road seemed to Sonic to be almost as long as all the months he had travelled before.  
But that was nothing compared to the second week.

(But I was going to say when Truth broke in with all her matter-of-fact about the ice-storm)

After about eight days, the libria had passed, and Espio crashed. Hard.  
The drug's withdrawal process, they all came to realise, was horrific. Sonic first began to realise that Espio was less chirpy than usual, less excited about the journey ahead. He spoke of his mirth less often, and the long periods of silence were as obvious as the most deafening of sounds. This only lasted long enough for Sonic to bring it up for discussion a single time.  
"How's it hanging over there, Esp?" he asked.  
Espio looked up at him with a very strange grin. "I'm going to throw up," he announced, not without an air of excitement about even this fact.  
And then he did throw up. And didn't stop for thirteen hours.  
The three travellers hadn't come across a major settlement even once since they began their journey southwest from the ocean; This was the Cape of Torion, a largely unsettled wasteland of what the libric Espio referred to as exciting swamps, delightful deserts and adorable mountains of marshy filth. There were a few people living here in the wilderness, none of them very receptive to guests, but it was through them that Sonic had managed, not without difficulty, to wrangle directions to the town of Desolation, their eventual goal. It was supposed to be a three week journey, and they might have made it in two and a half if not for the horrid second week that stretched it out to a gruelling five.

(I should prefer to have some boy bend them, as he went out and in to fetch the cows)

After Espio's bout of sickness had passed (Sonic at first took it as some virus he had picked up in a swamp somewhere, and hoped it wasn't contageous), they camped and slept. An entire day's journey had been wasted, and unfortunately it would turn out to be the first of many. Espio refused to wake up the next morning. He slept like the dead, resisting every effort to rouse him. And what could they do? They couldn't carry him. They couldn't leave without him, though Niles threatened to somewhere in the area of thirty thousand times. So another day was wasted, Espio snoring face down in the dust and Sonic assuring that it was for the best, that they should give him the chance to get it out of his system so they could all reclaim their health and sanity for the journey ahead.  
This turned out to be too much to ask. The next day Espio was awake, but had changed the colour of his scales to a very dull blue-green, and said very little about anything, except that they should get going already because he was sick of this stupid desert. He added that Sonic had promised to take him out of the desert, and had only succeeded in bringing him to another one. He cursed Sonic for removing him from his comfort zone, and accused him of being little more than an egocentric prude who liked to think that the world orbited around his personal crusades. He added that he had nothing left to live for now that he was alone in the world except for an arrogant hedgehog and a pompous prick of a librarian, and thanks very much.  
This was about as cheerful as Espio got for the next seven or eight days. He walked slowly and moaned almost every minute. At night he cried himself to sleep, and every morning he slept four hours longer than anyone else, a dead sleep from which nobody could resurrect him until he was ready. More than once he threatened to kill himself, and Sonic was worried that he actually might. Niles complained bitterly about the presence of such dead weight, and it had led to several heated arguments. They covered about seventeen days' travel in seven.

(Some boy too far from town to learn baseball, whose only play was what he found himself, summer or winter, and could play alone)

Luckily, Espio had recovered. His complexion brightened day by day until it was once again a vibrant mouve purple. He spent the first few days of his recovery apologising profusely to Sonic and Niles, explaining that the libria drug was like the hydrogen bomb of mood-altering substances, and that he had never experienced such emotion imbalance in his life. Both understood his situation and neither blamed him, but it couldn't reverse the impact of two and a half weeks of bad blood. Any journey can be irredeemably ruined by too much bitterness and tension, and friendships that begin with such problems rarely develop, having been poisoned at the roots. The three travellers eventually arrived in the town of Desolation with the seeds of asperity brewing within, and this was largely responsible for the way the energies of Desperation were able to gain such a powerful hold over them over the coming days.

(One could do worse than be a swinger of birches)

III/Cinos

Thousands of miles to the south and the east of the town of Desolation, over fields and deserts, across an ocean, a deep and untamed jungle stood foreboding and ancient. Exotic birds of a species found nowhere else on Mobius chirped and squawked in the tall, archaeic trees. The constant buzz and chitter of insects large and small filled the air.  
Then, the unmistakable crack of a pistol shot ripped through everything, ceasing all.  
Panting, gasping for air, a dirty and haggard young porcupine half-ran and half-stumbled through the wild growth, his eyes wild and filled with fear. He tripped and cried out, falling onto the hard jungle floor and scraping his elbows. Madly, he scrambled for footing.  
Another figure came bolting out of the foliage behind him. Rasputan Nethergate, descendant of the tribal inheritors of the antiverse, whooped and danced when he came within sight of the scrambling porcupine, waving a gun above his head.  
"Hoo-boy!" Rasputan shrieked, "Almost got away from us, there, didn't you feller! You might wanna reevaluate your course of action, you've _seen_ what this thing can do!"  
"Please, sai," the fallen porcupine spluttered, "The Wood Devil owns these lands! He will destroy you and I both without a second thought for our trespass!"  
Rasputan laughed. "Phooey! The Wood Devil might claw you up a little, but he can't put you full of lead like I can."  
"You are a fallen one, Rasputan Nethergate," the fatigued porcupine moaned.  
As he tried to pull himself to his feet, he was kicked in the side and dropped again, though the attack hadn't come from Rasputan. When he hit the ground again with a pained grunt, he opened his eyes and saw nothing but a filthy red and white high-top sneaker, worn full of holes, and the lower half of a blue leg.  
"Now, now," came a dark and raspy voice, "No need for name-calling."  
The jungle sounds slowly began to return to the wild. Quite suddenly, above them all and some distance away, there came a piercing animal call.  
"Wibble-_kee_!"  
"His servants," the porcupine lamented, "They come..."  
"I thought you'd have figured out by now that the Wood Devil is the least you have to worry about," said the owner of that blue leg and tattered shoe, "We're much more dangerous, especially if you don't do what you're told. This is the last time I'll ask you, kiddo, get up and take us where we want to go. Pronto."  
"Mercy," the porcupine grunted, picking himself up, "Mercy by on my soul..."

IV

In comparison with the other settlements of the Cape, Desolation was a large town. One wouldn't have thought so, being as it was in the centre of nowhere, but it was, and Sonic noticed quite fast the lack of law enforcement within.  
This would perhaps not be such a sudden surprise, if they hadn't just travelled from the over-enforced and merciless stronghold that was the City of Clouds. The city was built into a ring of cliffs in the middle of an arid desert of red rock, tumbleweeds and prairies. So remote was it that the people here would probably experience some difficulty in importing necessities from outside, and as such they would have to be fairly self-sufficient. Sonic had hoped he might be able to send another letter home while they were here, but by the look of this place, he would have been surprised if they had a mail service. He remembered the desert town of Newton, where he had run into his old arch-nemesis Mecha Sonic, and sighed. People in little remote desert towns had a reputation for being jerks.  
"I'm telling you, I have this feeling," Espio insisted, "We're being watched."  
"I don't doubt it," Sonic returned, "If these guys have had even one visitor before us in the past decade, it'd surprise me. They'll either throw us a party or lynch us with pitchforks, just you wait."  
"I've had this feeling for a while now, though. Like, even back on the road."  
"What the devil is _that_?" Niles demanded, and he was pointing straight ahead.  
They had been following the main street in the town, in search of some sign of authority, and had come to what appeared to be a central plaza of some form. This was a strange sight in such an insignificant burgh, a monument with a statue in the centre and a well-kept fountain to honour it. The whole thing sat beneath a black water tower with the faded name of the town painted on it in white.  
"What a weird statue," Sonic commented, "Look."  
The sandstone carving depicted three robots striking a pose. None, Sonic was happy to discover, resembled Mecha Sonic. All three were of a unique design; one looked like a stone golem with oversized cannonball fists, another resembled a tank with machine-guns for arms. The third, and the largest, looked something like a fast food mascot, a walking rubbish-bin with arms and legs, and with an upside-down bucket for a head, a cartoon smile-face scrawled on it.  
Espio kneeled to read the inscription at the monument's base. "In honour of The Justice Brigade," he read, "Keeping Desolation safe."  
"The Justice Brigade," Niles snorted, "I say."  
"This is nuts," Sonic said, "Let's just get our business done."  
Espio pointed across the road. "Look, there's a shop. And it's open. We should ask if there's a museum or something in town. If the rune's here, it'll probably be on display somewhere, I bet."  
"Sure," Sonic replied, "Come on."  
They walked together across the dirt road that constituted Desolation's main thoroughfare, and approached the general store with the 'OPEN' sign on the door.  
After they turned away, another figure stepped out from behind the monument. His black and red metal feet thudded heavily in the dry dirt, kicking up brown clouds with every step. He stood and observed the three travel-weary adventurers as they walked.

V

A few people mingled inside the general store, mostly old folks with antique-style clothing. Much to Sonic's surprise, nobody seemed too shocked or interested by the presence of newcomers to the town. Most people just glanced at them for a moment and then went back to what they were doing, indifferent. Bored, even.  
"What an overwhelming welcoming bash," Sonic said, "I'd like to see this place when it _really_ gets cranking."  
"Allow me," Niles said, "You'll be glad you brought me along, for, if there is one person on this planet most suited to extracting information, it's Niles Wilkinson-Price."  
"Go for it," Sonic said, then to Espio he muttered, "Good to know he's useful for something." The chameleon smiled and winked.  
"Excuse me, good sir." Niles got the attention of the shopkeeper, a very overweight wolf, who looked up at him slowly with droopy eyes.  
"Meh?"  
"My associates and I are investigating something in your fine little town, and I was hoping you might be able to assist us. We have heard rumour of the presence of a particular artifact in your town's possession, a stone of sorts, with a mysterious symbol printed on it. This object is of great interest to us, you see, and we have travelled very far to observe it. Might you point us in the right direction, so to speak?"  
The shopkeeper looked up at him for a moment, speechless. Then he shook his head.  
"Mister, I ain't got the darn-tootinist idea what's it you just said."  
Niles spluttered in disbelief, stumbling backward as though struck. Sonic stepped in to take up the slack.  
"A stone," he said, "A rune, a rock. A special rock, with a picture on it."  
"A rock," the shopkeeper replied, and shrugged. "I ain't seen no _rock_ with no _pitcher_ onnit. You guys gonna buy something?"  
Sonic sighed. "No, no. Thanks anyway."  
"Just glad I's to be of service to you folk."  
The three left the shop and returned to the street. Niles was still flustered.  
"Simpleton!" he exclaimed.  
"Well, I wonder if there's anyone else around here who might know any better?" Sonic asked.  
A few people milled about in the street, wandering from one place to another, but it was hardly a crowd. People walked slowly, with their heads down and their feet shuffling. One mobian sat on the curb with his head in his hands.  
"I say," Niles said, softly, "I think you'll both have to agree that there is something decidedly... discomforting... about this town."  
"I'll say, it's not exactly tourist central," Espio replied.  
"It's not that... What I mean to say is... do you think that the people here are somewhat... unnaturally crestfallen?"  
"Well sure," Sonic replied, "It's just a really boring town. It just seems odd to you because you've spent so much time in happyland."  
It was true that Desolation seemed to the discerning eye almost to be the exact polar opposite of Stratosphereon. In this town, depression and agitation seemed to be the rule that governed people's lives.  
"It's not right," Niles said, "There is something discomforting about it."  
"Snortzworth and the City of Clouds are behind us, now," Sonic assured him, "There's no dictorial government here throwing people in prison for mood crimes and drugging them into depression. You're being paranoid."  
Niles shook his head but said nothing more on the matter. Mood was contageous, that was one important lesson he had learned from his time in Stratosphereon, and he had no desire to stir the pot of discontent, lest he fuel another unnecessary argument. Though he was annoyed, more than he should be, that the hedgehog and chameleon refused to take him seriously. There was an unusually strong desire to give them both a piece of his mind.  
"Talking about paranoid," Espio said, "I'm getting that feeling again. That we're being watched."  
"Oh all right," Sonic said, exasperated, "If you're that worried about it, we'll-"  
He didn't have a chance to complete the sentence. Even as he spoke he was vaguely aware of an increasingly loud roaring-burning sound like a lit bottle rocket from an indeterminate direction, and more quickly than he was able to react, Espio and Niles were thrown halfway across the width of the street in opposite directions, and something collided with Sonic with what felt almost like the force of a car. He was thrown into a wall and whatever had hit him was still on him, one hand around his neck and breathing like an asthma sufferer.  
Sonic's head hit something hard and dazed him, and he went slack for a moment in shock. Time slipped a notch for him and he wasn't even sure how he got to be where he was, wedged against a wall with something hot and clad in metal with a death grip on him, something alive that wheezed and snorted against his ear. People began to gather in the street to observe the spectacle, but nobody seemed willing to help.  
"My, my, my," the attacker gruffed, "I caught myself a blue fish, and man, is it a _big_ one! Slowing down in your old age, Sonic? Reflexes not what they used to be? Oh how the mighty have fallen."  
Sonic wriggled in the assailant's grasp, he gripped the enemy hand with both of his, finding that it was clad in a glove of thick, hot rubber like a bicycle tire. At the wrist it vanished beneath a cuff of steel and a sleeve of the same. Sonic kicked out and struck only metal, searing hot in the midday sun and agonizing pressed against his body.  
Who had caught him so unawares in this sleepy town? Not Cinos, and although his assailant carried the armour of a robot, Mecha Sonic was destroyed and so it wasn't him either. Besides, those gloves gave away the fact of the live organism inside them - a creature who, although he sought to emulate every aspect of a robot, had been unable to devise a metal sheath to follow unhindered the delicate movements of a living hand.  
Sonic didn't have to think very hard. He knew exactly who it was who went so such an effort to conceal the shame of his fragile mortality.  
Zero Tolerance, tightening his grip on Sonic's neck, pulled him off the wall and held him high in the air, displaying him like a trophy to those who had gathered around to observe.  
"_Take a look!_" he shouted, "_Take a real good look!_ There isn't a mobian alive who can cross me and live!"

VI

Sonic the Hedgehog had racked up an impressive list of enemies in the years he had been a Freedom Fighter, but few were so mysterious in both motive and method as the black-spined young hedgehog who called himself Zero Tolerance, though even that was surely a pseudonym. Zero's persuit of Sonic was relentless, though it went beyond simply wanting him dead. There were hundreds of rogues across Mobius, certainly, who would have loved to have been the one to kill the blue blur, simply for the challenge of it. But Zero clearly wanted him to pay, wanted him to suffer. He had a grudge, a vendetta, and would not rest until he had satisfied his hunger for revenge.  
What disturbed Sonic was that he hadn't the faintest clue what he had done to cross wires with a hedgehog he had never met. For the very first time he had come into contact with Zero Tolerance, he was already on the hunter's black list. What was worse was that Zero knew the art of emotional attacks better than anybody, and nobody Sonic loved was safe from being used as a tool against him. Sally and Amy both had been unwitting means to an end in the past, mere utensils for Zero to solicit as much pain out of his enemy as possible.  
Of all Sonic's many rivals, Zero seemed to him to be the most dangerous. This was because, of all Sonic's many rivals, Zero was the one who he understood the very least.  
Held up now as he was, gripped by the neck and facing his attacker, Sonic saw that Zero had once again upgraded himself. The black hedgehog seemed to have a vulnerability complex, a live mobian who felt naked without his robotic suit of armour. Every time he hunted Sonic down, it seemed he had spent his absence upgrading this ensemble with new improvements designed for the single unwavering purpose of catching and killing the fastest thing alive. His suit, originally the gutted outer shell of one of Dr Robotnik's E-100 series mechs, had been resprayed a vibrant black and red, and reassembled so often as to be unrecognisable from Robotnik's original vision. Zero's smokey grey grinning maw was just visible under a metal helmet he wore to cover his entire head. Sonic tried to meet his attacker face to living face, but all he saw were two camera-lens eyes zooming in and out to focus, red points of light in the pupil of each.  
Zero brought Sonic back down to Mobius and spun him around, embracing him from behind while retaining the powerful grip on his neck. Sonic was only able to feel the barrel of the enormous gun that was now against the side of his head.  
"I thought you were dead," Sonic choked, trying to keep his wits. With Zero behind him, he could see the crowd of people who had gathered to watch (and, evidently, just to watch) the spectacle. Niles and Espio were the closest, neither sure how they should proceed.  
"Amy didn't take too kindly to being kidnapped," Sonic continued, "She told me she beat your head inside-out."  
"Oh, I'm a resilient one, got a reputation for being hard to kill," Zero returned, "Got the heart of a real trooper beating inside me, don't you know. Your girlfriend spoiled my good looks, but she didn't do me in, not completely. She's going to wish she did, though. Young Amy Rose has earned her way good and proper into my black book, Sonic, and after you're gone I'm going to hunt her down as well. Why don't you dwell on that for a while? Imagine her expression just before I take her head."  
"You're sick," Sonic growled, "Why are you following me?"  
Zero tapped him on the top of the head with the gun barrel hard enough to hurt, then aimed it again at his temple. "You haven't been using that noggin of yours, have you. There's nowhere you can run, nowhere you can hide. As a matter of fact I was only out of town so I could have a few words with our friend Mecha Sonic. Imagine my surprise when I found the two of you together in the same dump town in the middle of nowhere. Two birds with one stone! Two kills for the price of one! So I finished my business with the robot and now I've come to finish my business with you. This has been a long time coming, Sonic."  
"You've come a long way just to kill me, Zero, I wish I knew what I did to deserve it."  
"Oh, no no no no no!" Zero chuckled, but it was a forced laugh. "I haven't come _just_ to kill you, Sonic. In fact, I'm not going to kill you until you ask me to. It's making you ask that's the fun part." He leaned in and whispered in Sonic's ear: "I'm going to make you wish you were dead. Then, I'm going to grant that wish."  
Sonic looked out over the crowd and began to resent them for standing in place and watching so placidly, as though this were a stage show. If he was murdered in cold blood right here on the street, he could easily imagine the crowd giving a polite applause and then stepping over his body while they went about their business. There was something eerie about the way they stood, as though this were as common a spectacle as the sunrise.  
One civilian in particular stood out as unique. While the others seemed almost bored by the display, there was one bespectacled youth, a tall and thin teenage wolf, who stood on the front line holding a sketch pad and scribbling madly, looking up with frequent gestures to observe Sonic and his captor.  
This was a farce.  
"Hey Sonic," Espio called out, "Uh, is this another friend of yours from back home?"  
"You could say that," Sonic replied.  
"Oh, we go _way_ back," Zero added, "Don't we, Sonic? And what's with the holiday, by the way? Did the Freedom Fighters finally get sick of your ugly mug hanging around, screwing everything up?"  
"What I'm doing here is nobody's business but my own, and especially not yours," Sonic replied, dismally. "Put me down, Zero."  
"No, no I really don't think I will," the armoured hedgehog said, and jammed the gun barrel against his temple so hard that his head was pressing on his shoulder.  
It started so slowly and quietly that he didn't even know it at first, but Sonic began to notice a rhythmic clapping coming from the crowd. The entire town seemed to be watching, now, and almost every single one of them was clapping their hands together in a steady beat that was growing in frequency.  
"What on Mobius is going on here?" he asked aloud.  
Zero himself seemed suspicious, now, of the strange behaviour of the people of Desolation. His false smile having drained away to a scowl, his eyes darted back and forth over the crowd.  
"Who are they cheering?" he asked Sonic, "Who is it, do you think? You or me? Because I know I always hedge my bets for the one with the gun."  
The crowd parted now, still clapping, and stood either side of the road. Sonic could see the central plaza with the strange statue. Lo and behold, underneath the stone representation of the three robots, there stood two of the robots themselves. The bulbous walking garbage-can and the tank-thing began to advance along the road toward Sonic and Zero, cheered on by the crowd. The teenage wolf flipped a page in his sketchbook and started another frantic drawing.  
"Stay back," Zero warned them, "You'll find that I'm not playing a game, here. Keep away and nobody has to get hurt." He hesitated, then corrected himself by tapping on Sonic's head. "Well, _somebody_ does."  
"Halt!" shouted the tank-robot, "The Justice Brigade demands that you surrender immediately."  
"Oh!" Zero cried, "Well, since you asked so nicely!" He frowned and pointed his gun at the newcomers. "Or how about I blow you _all_ away? How about that? This isn't about you, any of you, it's between me and the blue fleshbag!"  
Sonic had de'ja'vu, remembering the gang leader in Chagrin Las Mortis who had called him _blue spinebag_.  
"Where's the third one?" he asked aloud.  
"The third-" Zero shrieked, and something grabbed him from behind, pulling the gun safely away from Sonic's head and allowing him to twist free of his captor's grasp. He ran well out of the black hedgehog's reach to join his friends, and then turned to face the action.  
Zero hadn't been taken helpless. While the golem-bot had grabbed him from behind, a mechanical third arm had emerged from Zero's suit and grabbed the robot around the waist with a giant claw. Zero threw the robot over his head with a yell, flinging it at the other two. All three robots were knocked over, but the tank-bot flipped itself up rightside and began launching small missiles.  
Zero had two large black mechanical arms hovering over his head, now, giving him almost the appearance of a space-age eastern god. He rushed forward, roaring, and the arms actually snatched the missiles out of the air as they flew toward him, and he threw them away like discarded toys. They exploded when they hit the ground, and people ran out of the way, screaming.  
"_I am not somebody for you to screw with!_" Zero screamed, and activated his rockets. He blasted straight up, smoke bellowing from beneath, and then hovered above the ground, mechanical claws still floating menacingly around him.  
The tank-bot shot at him with some kind of automatic weapon, and Zero held up one of his own arms to protect him. A shield emerged from his suit with a hissing sound, and deflected the bullets.  
_He really has gone all out,_ Sonic thought with a shiver, _He installed all of this stuff just so that he could kill me? That's more than an obsession. There's no word for what that is._  
With a loud boom, Zero rocketed across the sky and tackled the tank-bot, knocking it head over wheels. He then turned and landed in the road, panting and growling like an enraged animal. He didn't turn in time to dodge a blow from the golem-bot, which threw a punch with its giant cannonball fist, and hit Zero on the side of his helmet. The hedgehog toppled backward and snatched at the robot with his mechanical claw-arms, but the robot ducked them and engaged Zero in hand-to-hand combat.  
Zero had trouble shielding himself from the attacking blows, as the robot was clearly built for the purposes of this kind of combat, and he was beaten backward, shouting and cursing. He locked one of his mechanical claws around the robot's waist and threw it aside, but even as he did, he was attacked from behind by the tank-bot, who snared him in some kind of net. Zero swore and wrestled with the mesh web, but it tightened and closed in on him. He fell over, thrashing and screaming like a child in the throes of a tantrum. One of the mechanical arms flailed about in the air, the claw snapping at nothing, but ultimately the black hedgehog in the robot suit had been struck powerless.  
A mighty cheer rose up from the crowd of townspeople. The three robots stood together and almost seemed to pose, like they posed in the statue that had been carved to their likeness.  
"That one didn't do anything," Espio noted, and pointed to the biggest robot with the painted cartoon face.  
The robots siezed Zero and took him away. He was screaming something, and Sonic realised the curses were directed at him. "_I'll get you, Sonic you rat, this isn't over, we still have business, you and I!_"  
Espio shook his head in disbelief. "Sonic, everywhere we go, somebody wants to kill you."  
Sonic laughed uneasily and rubbed his temple where Zero had rammed his gun barrel. "Yeah, I know... My nickname should be E. Coli, because everybody seems to want me dead. I can't even go on a holiday without assassins tracking me down, what does that say about me? Come on, I want to sit down somewhere and rest."

VII

Sonic, Espio and Niles sat outside a small cafe when they were approached by the young wolf in spectacles who Sonic had seen before. The youth was carrying his sketch pad under one arm and his pencil behind one ear.  
"That was pretty awesome!" the kid exclaimed, "Rack another one up for the Justice Brigade! _Boom! Pow!_ This'll make great material for the next edition!"  
"Next edition of what?" Niles asked, and frowned. "Who are you?"  
"Hey, ease up on the kid," Sonic said. "Hey. Name's Sonic. This is Niles and Espio."  
"I'm Orlando Winterburn, author and illustrator of the Justice Brigade official comic!" the kid exclaimed, and he opened his sketch pad for the others to see.  
Sonic was taken aback. The kid was clearly a prodigy. On the page in front of him was an excellent sketch of Zero Tolerance in his robot suit, grinning with a gun against Sonic's head. Sonic wasn't particularly taken with a picture of him looking so helpless, but he couldn't deny that it was very good.  
"Just what I needed," Orlando said, excited, "A new villain. The old ones were getting stale. What was his name?"  
"Villain?" Sonic asked, "What, you mean him? Uh, Zero Tolerance he calls himself. I don't know his real name."  
"Oh, _zing_!" Orlando exclaimed with some enthusiasm, "What a great name! _Pow!_"  
Niles looked up and down the street, as though fearful that any moment another unsavoury character in a mechanical suit was going to appear and try to kill them. "Excuse me, but I must say, I am a little confused as to what exactly is going on here. Who were those brutal characters and what are they doing here?"  
"You mean the Justice Brigade?" Orlando asked, and he flipped to another page in his sketch book, where he had drawn pictures of the robots who had intervened in Sonic's rescue.  
"The Justice Brigade! Defenders of peace and freedom in Desolation! Combaticon! Arsenal! Rustbucket! _Pow!_"  
"That one didn't do anything," Espio reiterated, and tapped the picture of the robot Orlando had called Rustbucket, the bulbous robot with the painted face on its bucket-like head. "What's _his_ special power?"  
"Oh, Rustbucket is the most powerful of them all," Orlando confided, "He only fights the _really_ tough villains."  
"Of course, because he's so wretchedly intimidating," Niles said. "Is this all some kind of a joke? Am I on one of those hidden camera programmes?"  
"Not at all!" Orlando replied, "Desolation is a black spot. Criminal activity here is rife. The Justice Brigade were built by a kindly old professor to safeguard the people against the very bad things that happen here. They fight all the villains... Toxic Sludge, The Marksman, Warhead, The Commando... and I tell the stories! _Zing!_"  
"I see," Sonic said with a trace of humour, "And where is this kindly old professor now?"  
Orlando shook his head, and the pencil fell out of his ear when he did. He reached down to pick it up. "Sadly, he was killed a year ago. Murdered by The Commando during one of his dastardly plots. The Brigade thwarted him, but too late." He sighed. "That was my best selling issue. Since then, nothing much has happened around here, it's been real boring. All the surviving villains are behind bars, and I've run out of stories." His ears pricked up, and the pencil fell out again. "That's why it's so great that you guys came along with this new villain! A new adventure at last for the Justice Brigade!"  
Sonic wasn't sure he liked this kid very much, the way he spoke of death and pain only in terms of how well it benefited him, and figured he wasn't quite old enough to understand how serious these things were, real tragedies that affected real people. He had to remind himself that he had been this reckless too, once upon a time. Although he retained his sense of humour, he had matured enough to appreciate peace rather than let it bore him.  
"Say, did the Justice Brigade ever have an adventure that had something to do with a rock? A stone with a symbol on it, that had a strange power to it?"  
"Huh?" The young fox appeared puzzled, "No, nothing like that... Hey! It's a great idea for a story, though! _Pow!_"  
"Quite," Niles muttered with distaste. "Until you're living it."

VIII

The sheriff of Desolation was a crocodile with half his teeth missing, and he grinned at Zero when the robots hauled him into the watch house, strung up and stripped of his armour. The black hedgehog scowled at the sheriff and his deputy, a short gecko, who both chuckled.  
"Well well well, we caught ourselves a new playmate for the freakshow," the sheriff said, "Good work, fellers. Haul his butt into the playpen."  
"Justice prevails again!" announced the robot Combaticon.  
A short time later, Zero stood naked in a small prison cell, hugging his shoulders, his spines still unfolding in the open air.  
"I can't believe this always happens to me," he snarled, and his eyes shrank to slits in the dull light. "I'm getting tired of this, so very tired."  
He grabbed the bars of the cell, with one hand, and the other clenched, then loosened, then clenched again.  
Zero wasn't alone. He was quite aware that there were others crammed into this cell, talking about him with some interest, but he made a point of ignoring them. He was too occupied with his fierce anger to concern himself with anyone else  
Soon enough, he was finally approached. An opossum walked up beside him and looked him over.  
"Watched you fight the Justice Bozos," he said, "Took quite a beating, didn't 'cha. Pretty crappy armour if you ask me."  
"I didn't ask you." Zero grumbled.  
"Hey!" The opossum stepped back and held up his hands in surrender, "Fair enough! Just speaking my mind, it's something I can't help. The name's Axel Gear, the Rocket Knight, one and only. How about you? Gonna introduce yourself, or should we just call you John Doe?"  
Zero looked up at the opossum and scratched the back of his neck. He found him to be unsavoury and arrogant, and had little patience for conversation. Eventually, though, he brought himself to answer, not without venom. "Zero Tolerance. By name and nature."  
"Attitude, attitude, everyone's got an attitude," Axel replied, "Well, do you wanna meet the gang? We have one policy here in Desolation Prison, and that's to keep off each other's nerves."  
"Whatever." Zero muttered, and for the first time he turned to observe his cellmates.  
The first thing he noticed was that one of them was female and considerably attractive. Almost instantly he forgot his outrage and a crooked grin crept onto his face. This was something about himself that he still didn't understand.  
"Okay, let's do this left-to-right," Axel said, "We haven't got many newcomers in here, so a fresh face is always welcome. First off the bat, this is Shred the Raptor. Shred, Zero. Zero, Shred."  
Shred was a velociraptor, and curled up in the corner he looked quite ferocious and very dangerous. When Axel spoke his name, he opened his eyes, and Zero saw that the eye on the right side of his head was fake, just a painted ball squeezed into the socket.  
"Pleased to eat you." Shred hissed, and then started chuckling, "Heh...heheh...heheheheheh..."  
Then Axel motioned to the next in line, who was the attractive girl. She was an anteater, and she wasn't looking at Axel or Zero, but out through the bars of the cell.  
"This," Axel said, "Is Kardot. That's all we know, and we don't know no more. We don't know where she came from, how she got here... in fact, we're starting to believe she doesn't even know that stuff herself. Go figure."  
Zero walked up to her. She was rather ragged, a bit tattered, and very distant. He put his hand up in front of her eyes and waved up and down. She didn't even flinch.  
"What's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?" he whispered.  
There was no reply.  
"How's about we bust ourselves outta here sometime and run away somewhere?" Zero probed.  
Slowly, there was movement. Kardot's eyes moved to fix on Zero's, and she raised her left hand to where he could see it. He was shocked to discover that the pointer finger on that hand was missing, and the stump was sparking. Kardot was some kind of android, and a very realistic one.  
"I don't like your tone," She told him, "And if I were you, I'd move right along. I don't know what reality I'm in, but back in my world, anybody who spoke to me like that didn't live to see another day, do you understand?"  
Zero snorted and backed off. Axel took him and whispered into his ear. "She's a little crazy," he confided, "Keeps rambling on about parallel realities... lizards with wings... robot echidnas, that kind of garbage. Talks to herself a lot. Probably a short circuit, we're guessing. We don't speak to her much... let's just move along, shall we?"  
Zero nodded, (_Don't think I like her anymore, anyway_, he thought) and looked at the last jailbird in the line. He was a squirrel in a dusty army uniform, and he was sitting in a ditch, playing with his own beard, twisting it in his fingers.  
"He's been here the longest out of all of us," Axel said, "He's called The Commando."  
"Welcome, soldier." The Commando droned, and gave a small salute.  
"We all have one thing in common, in here," Axel announced, "How we got here is always different, but we're the same in the way that we all fought with the Justice Geeks and lost."  
"How poetically awful," Zero murmured, "But I don't intend on sticking around in this cell for the rest of my life. Even to the end of the day, if I can help it."

IX

With Orlando Winterburn as their guide, Sonic and his companions soon checked in to the only room-for-rent in town, a three-room bed and breakfast run by a quiet old squirrel whose only words to them were the price of the room and what time breakfast was being served. She looked like somebody who was waiting to die. Orlando had pestered the three of them for their life stories and was particularly interested in Sonic's many adventures, but they managed to shoo him away for long enough to settle into their room and get some rest.  
"So, what do you reckon Cinos and his trusty companion are up to right now?" Espio asked, lying on Sonic's bed.  
Sonic stood at the window, looking out at the quiet town. "I dunno," he replied, "Dunno where he went. He's somewhere out there, looking for runes... with nobody there to stop him."  
"Which brings me to a point that you to have yet not considered," Niles announced.  
"What's that?" Sonic asked.  
"Dear hedgehog, if your mysterious rock really is in this town, and you find it, where exactly do we go next?"  
Sonic looked at him for a moment, then shook his head. "Aaah, I dunno. I never think that far ahead."  
"Exactly. So, while we're here, we also need to find..."  
"Another library."  
"Precisely."  
Sonic scratched the back of his neck and groaned. "The City of Clouds had the biggest library on Mobius, but this place? Do these people even read?"  
Niles sighed, "Comic books, certainly."  
"Well, what we're after isn't in any comic book."  
"Oh! I think I saw an atlas in here somewhere, just before!" Espio exclaimed, jumping off the bed, "That might be helpful!"  
"Just what we need!" Sonic exclaimed, "Maybe we can work out where Cinos was headed!"  
"Here it is," the chameleon said, and he pulled a large book out of a drawer. It was a little old and a little dusty, but atlases have a tendency to remain up to date just as long as the world remains the same shape.  
Niles took the book and put it on the floor, and the three of them sat in a circle around it. The fox opened it and flipped through the pages until they came to something familiar. It was a full-page representation of Westerica and the southeastern territories.  
"There's where I come from," Sonic said, pointing just below a large star labelled 'Mobitropolis'. "It hasn't been called Mobitropolis for a long time, though."  
"Well, you certainly are a fair way from home, aren't you," Niles said, and he pointed to another dot more than halfway down the page, a tiny pinpoint labelled, in tiny letters, 'Desolation'.  
"Whoa..." Sonic gaped, and compared the distances, "How long have I been on the road now? I don't even know."  
The spring monsoons had been underway in the Great Forest when Sonic had left his home and set out north. He remembered the way that summer had made his days wandering the Crux Desert seem so much longer, and he was sure that the leaves on the trees had since lost their summer lustre and dulled to autumn. Beyond that, it was hard to tell. Was autumn still over the horizon, or were they so far into it that winter was in sight? The new year had certainly passed since he had been on the road, and the duration of his journey could have conceivably been anywhere from four to six months.  
"They'll be worried about me at home," he said, "It's just as well that I sent a letter to Sally." Sonic had no idea that the letter he thought he had sent had been intercepted by Mecha Sonic and had never been delivered.  
"Here's Sun Port and Storm Port, where Stratospherion docks," Niles said, pointing to two more tiny stars, "Sonic, where is it you say you've found these... rocks... of yours?"  
"Do either of you have a pen?" Sonic inquired. Niles handed him a pencil. Sonic studied the map and began making marks. "The first was here in the desert, somewhere... the second was on Stratospherion, but I'll mark Sun Port... the third is supposed to be here, somewhere, and Cinos went off in that direction."  
He put three 'X' marks on the map, and an arrow to show where his evil twin was headed - southeast, back over the Crux Desert and then to the subcontinent of Kirandul.  
"That's odd... that's the direction we've just come from. I wonder why he'd go back there?"  
"Hey, what's that?" Espio asked, and he pointed to a dotted ellipse that was printed onto the map. It was just off the coast of Westerica, vaguely where Sonic's arrow was pointing, and it was marked 'Annual Isle Last Seen Here'.  
Niles looked at it and chuckled. "I'm surprised they even printed that," he said, "It's a silly story. Years ago, some delirious explorer reported that he crash landed on some island, after he was trying to get home from a long uneventful journey and his ship, he said, was attacked by a sea monster. He said there were a bunch of natives there - porcupines, for heavens sake! - who nursed him back to health and sent him home. Since then, there have been a couple of buffoons looking for fifteen minutes of fame who swear they, too, saw the island, and that it only 'appears' for a short time every year. It's bollocks, there isn't an island there and there never has been."  
Sonic's interest piked. "Porcupines? You're kidding!"  
"Yes," Niles replied, "I know. 'Tis ridiculous."  
"No, no. I mean, the porcupines were the people whose religion Cinos has tapped into. They were the ones who practiced the Old Ways, back when the Ways weren't so Old. Cinos called them the 'mother-race of Mobius'. They're the ones who made the Runes."  
"Were," Niles corrected, "Not a single porcupine has walked Mobius for thousands of years. They're all quite dead, I'm afraid."  
"Cinos' guide is a porcupine," Sonic said, "Rasputan. Granted, Cinos found him in the antiverse, but the antiverse mirrors this world, and where there are porcupines over there, they're likely to be here as well. Although, how they've avoided detection I've no idea. Do you think Cinos believes the story of the Annual Isle?"  
"I wouldn't have a clue, dear hedgehog, but if he does... well, he's only going to be disappointed."  
Sonic nodded and looked back at the map. "Well, say I do mark it, anyway... these four points are very orderly, aren't they. If there's a pattern here, we might be able to figure out where the last rune is."  
"Well I can't see a pattern," Niles snorted.  
They stared at the map for a while, and then Espio shrugged and said "Four points make an arrow."  
"Yeah," Sonic replied, "Yeah, you're right. But pointing in which direction?"  
For a while, he tried connecting up the four points to make an arrow, but every way he tried it, the tail was wonky and it didn't point anywhere at all. After a while he sighed and threw the pencil at the map in frustration.  
"This is stupid."  
"Well let's not worry about it today," Espio suggested, "The day is wearing on, and we need some sleep. We'll find the rune tomorrow and figure out what to do then."

X

Night fell heavy over Desolation like an ebony cloak.

Zero was woken easily from his restless sleep. It was cold and he was naked. So were they all, but nobody else seemed to be affected, probably being that they had all been imprisoned for so long. He looked about, muttering curses to himself, to see who was making so much racket.  
A steady clanking-knocking noise filled the watch-house, like somebody hitting wood with a hammer. Of the other four prisoners, only Kardot remained awake.  
"Stop making that freakin' _noise_," he barked at her, knowing full well that it wasn't she who had been making it. The sound came from outside the prison. Kardot did not indulge him with a reply, she merely stood and watched the moon through their one window.  
"I... don't... sleep," she had growled when Zero had earlier brought up the subject. And Zero didn't doubt it - after all, what did a robot need with sleep? Just another disadvantage to being a walking prime cut, a biological meatbag, he had decided. No machine was so inefficient as to need a full eight hours of recharge after merely sixteen hours of even basic operation. As a biological, his downtime was a full third of his life, and he despised it.  
_Clank... clank..._  
"Well, someone better stop," he said, gluggy with half-sleep, "Or else I'll stop them."  
The sound revealed itself to be footsteps, like someone was wearing a large pair of metal shoes, and the perpetrator was only visible as a wide silhouette who entered the watch-house and stood a few feet from the bars.  
"Day of the supervillains..." a voice whispered in the night.  
And with that, the figure turned fully around and clanked away again. The footsteps grew quieter, quieter, and faded away into the night.

Sonic could not sleep either. His companions, too, slept just as soundly as he wished he could. Espio and Niles, either side of him, breathed lightly and rhythmically. Sonic stared at the ceiling and listened to it.  
Desolation was not a pleasant town, and it made him uneasy. Perhaps it was in part an environmental issue, but Sonic's mood had been doing bizarre and frightening things since they had arrived here. Sometimes when Niles spoke in that pretentious accent, he just wanted to clip the fox across the jaw with the back of something heavy and blunt. Whenever Espio made some sarcastic crack that implied Sonic was being naive, he wanted to bend the chameleon's arm back until it went 'snap'. And from where did these disturbing thoughts originate? He was not used to them, not fun-loving easy-going Sonic the Hedgehog. These were not Sonic-thoughts. These were Cinos-thoughts.  
Sonic closed his eyes and made a determined effort to go to sleep. Every time he found a comfortable position in which to lie, he would find that it became uncomfortable fairly quickly and he would need to turn again. It is difficult, as most know, to sleep when you are tossing and turning enough to stir up a tornado.  
After some time, Sonic did indeed find rest. It wasn't sleep, though. He opened his eyes and found that the room was gone, the bed was gone, and he was lying under the stars.  
How could this be? He stood up and looked about for some indication of where he was. The town of Desolation was nowhere in sight, but about five hundred metres from where he stood was the base of a single building; a construction unlike Sonic had ever seen.  
"Where am I?" He said it aloud but it seemed only half-real. He wasn't quite here at all, but it wasn't quite a dream either. He sniffed the air and found that it had a dirty, smoggy quality that he associated only with the antiverse. In his efforts to sleep, he had either slid between worlds, or his mind had. In either event, he hadn't come all the way, and things took on the incorporeal feeling characteristic of dreams.  
The building he saw was a massive tower, round, painted black and so tall that he wasn't sure whether he could see the top of it or whether what he saw was the point at which perspective's patience for distance ended.  
The world was silent, here. The wind blew softly and calmly, and nothing grew close to this dark tower as though the building itself forbade life. He looked around in the dark for any other sign of settlement, but knew instinctively that there was none. This tower was the only building for miles, the only sign of civilisation for a very long stretch, and so was the little town on the other side of the coin, the aptly named settlement of Desolation. In fact, what Sonic thought he understood was that Desolation was here _because_ the tower was here.  
_Every Rune has a Tower_, he thought to himself, _and the Tower marks the spot where the power of the Runes bolts the antiverse to the universe. It's like a great big interdimensional rivet. People in my world are drawn to the Tower, even though they can't see it, they feel it and they have to stay. Stay and build._  
Sonic looked down from the quiet tower that stretched to the stars, and saw that Cinos was standing at its base. This shocked him at first, but it didn't take more than a moment to realise that some aspects of this little trip into the antiverse really were full-dream.  
"Ssssonic," Cinos hissed, "Dear brother."  
"Not afraid of you," Sonic told his evil twin, "I'm going to stop you and this madness, if it takes another year of my life, or two, or a dozen."  
"Not gonna happen," Cinos said, "You'll fall for me, that's what'll happen. You'll fall for me, and we'll rule heaven and Mobius together, as brothers, as it should be."  
"No," Sonic said, but not very convincingly.  
Cinos laughed. The white tendril-head of a worm poked out of his mouth. "The Whitewyrm will take us both and make us one. Let's not fight anymore. Fall for me, Sonic."

_Fall for me._

"_What in blue blazers is going on out there, I say?_" Niles screamed out the window.  
Sonic snapped out of his dream-travels as quickly as if a bucket of cold water had been dumped on him. He moaned and sat up in bed. "What's the problem, Jeeves?"  
Niles pulled his head back inside for a moment, "Can't you hear that? Some group of inconsiderate sods is out there playing their infernal rock music, it sounds like!"  
Sonic could hear the sounds as well, now. Not like music at all, of any kind, but like somebody was beating pans and buckets with metal poles. Sonic pulled himself out of bed to look, but by the time he got to the window, they had stopped.  
"Weird," Sonic said, squinting in the darkness, "If that happens every night, we ought to make sure we find the rune tomor-"  
There was an explosion like an atomic bomb going off.  
Espio fell out of bed with a shout and a heavy thump.  
"_Cripes_!" Niles yelled, shielding his eyes from the blast of light, which disappeared in moments. Then there was more silence, but this time it lasted.  
"What was _that_?" Espio demanded, and he looked like he was about to throw on a military uniform and stand to attention. His eyes were as wide as dishes.  
"Beats the heck out of me!" Sonic exclaimed, "But it sounded like a jumbo jet just crashed into a bullet train!"  
"Unlikely analogy," Niles commented, "But, knowing you, you're going right down there to investigate, I suppose?"  
"Egh. In the morning," Sonic replied, "I need my beauty sleep."

XI

When morning did arrive, just about everyone in Desolation was investigating. In fact, Sonic was possibly the last out of bed.  
"What's the ruckass about?" Espio asked, trying to see over the tops of the heads in the crowd.  
"Well, someone's found something," Sonic replied, "Niles, you're tallest. What do you see?"  
Niles was standing on the tips of his toes, peering into the gathering.  
"A smouldering mess," He reported at last.  
Orlando, the town's resident artist, was on the scene already, scribbling madly in his sketchbook as was to be expected.  
"Hey kid," Sonic said, and squeezed in beside the young wolf. Indeed, the ground was strewn with twisted, black bits of charred metal. He could still feel the heat of some of the larger chunks, still smouldering.  
"Sonic!" Orlando exclaimed, "You're just in time! Something's gone down, and the Justice Brigade are no doubt on their way to sort things out! _Pow!_"  
"Uhm..." Sonic murmered, and he picked up a barely recognisable chunk of debris, "I think this _was_ the Justice Brigade."  
Orlando stopped scribbling instantly, mouth slightly slack and eyes narrowed. "Buh?"  
Sonic held up the twisted object. Having been somebody who had dealt with robots for much of his career, Sonic was pretty sure he knew a robot's arm when he saw one. The ex-arm had been reduced to bent, blackened and smouldering wreckage. Sonic could still feel its warmth.  
"It's true!" someone in the crowd exclaimed, "That's all that remains of Combaticon of the Justice Brigade!"  
"_It's not true!_" Orlando shrieked, and he dropped the sketch pad as he brought his hands to his face. "The Justice Brigade are unstoppable!"  
"Dude, they're just a bunch of robots," Sonic said, but instantly felt sorry for the youth. He fell to his knees before the remains of the town's protector, looking like a kid who had just discovered that Santa Claus didn't exist.  
There was a loud commotion from the crowd, and Sonic saw that the other two robots had arrived. The tank-bot, Arsenal, and the other one, Rustbucket. The people of Desolation parted and allowed them to approach the remains of their former ally.  
"Status report, Combaticon!" commanded Arsenal.  
It was answered with only a resounding silence from the scorched debris. Sonic looked at the twisted metal and tried to recall the fight it had put up against Zero and his powerful machine suit. Hard to imagine, now.  
"Dead!" Orlando exclaimed, "I can't believe it! Combaticon is dead!"  
"**SYNTAX ERROR**," replied Rustbucket, and it was the first time Sonic had heard the walking garbage can speak. Its voice echoed with bad acoustic quality, tinny and monotone. It was exactly the kind of voice that one would expect from something that looked like a child's impression of a robot, a bulbous metal husk whose head was nothing but an upside-down bucket with a smiley-face painted on it.  
"**THE JUSTICE BRIGADE CANNOT BE DEFEATED**," the robot insisted, reiterating Orlando's point.  
"See for yourself," Sonic said, "This thing has battled its last villain."

XII

"So what's _your_ grudge with Sonic the Hedgehog?" Axel Gear asked Zero. The black-spined hedgehog, who spent most of his time staring outside, turned to his fellow prisoner and cocked an eyebrow.  
"What?"  
Axel and Shred were sitting on the floor of the cell, rolling Shred's glass eye back and forth to each other idly. Axel smirked and shrugged.  
"Blue guy, kinda short, runs fast-"  
"Yes yes yes, _Sonic_," Zero snapped, "I know who _Sonic_ is, what I don't know is how _you_ know him."  
Axel and Shred both laughed (Shred's laugh was little more than a serpentine hiss) as though Zero had just said something amusingly naive. It infuriated Zero no end.  
"He made a dire mistake in crossing me," he growled, "It's his fault I'm like this. And his _girlfriend_ too." He ran a finger along the ugly pink scar that ran down the right side of his face. "I don't care who he is, he will die by my hand."  
"Oh, sure," Axel returned, "Dude, if grudges against Sonic the Hedgehog were kittens, then we'd never be able to kick them all."  
"What does _that_ mean?"  
Shred picked up the glass eye and popped it back into his open socket. "It _means_, you overzealous bag of bolts and bones, that the delicious blue mammal poncing around out there is the bane of our collective existence. Heh...heheh... It don't serve us too well to seethe about it."  
"We've all had our run-ins," Axel added, "We've all seen what he can do. Only thing you can really do is to let it go, man, just forget about him and try to get as far away from him as possible. That's what we did." He snorted. "We didn't get far enough, apparently."  
Zero looked up at Kardot, frowning. Kardot frowned right back.  
"You too?" the hedgehog asked.  
"In a manner of speaking," she replied, "This is the first I've seen of him in this world, though. I was rather hoping he didn't exist here... he and his ugly echidna friend who got me killed."  
Axel rolled his eyes and made a twirling gesture with his finger near his temple. Zero, however, flared his eyes and gasped a little.  
"Yes, yes, _yes_!" he shrieked, "He had me destroyed too! How did you come back? How did you cheat it?" He narrowed his eyes. "The shaman?"  
Kardot laughed, and it was the first time he had seen any expression other than the darkest contempt and bitterness on her face. By the looks on Axel's and Shred's faces, he could tell that it was a new thing for even them to witness.  
"There are other worlds than these, babe," Kardot said, still amused, "If they're not infinite, then they may as well be. Like levels on a big tall tower that stretches on forever. There are many passages between these levels. Death is just one of them. But only if you're lucky." She smiled wider. "Tell me. Has that stupid cow Zephyer gone and gotten herself killed in this world yet? Because I would like that very much."  
"Who?"  
"Knuckles' ugly girlfriend... or perhaps she doesn't exist in this world. Very interesting."  
"No, no!" Zero shook his head madly, "I don't care, I don't care! I want to know about Sonic! _Sonic_! Tell me his weaknesses! Tell me now!"  
Kardot's smile faded and her face hardened. It again struck Zero that the android anteater was very easy on the eyes, despite the fact that the small-town prison's conditions had not been kind to her once painstakingly groomed features. Her physique was almost perfect-looking, her figure easily the calibre of a fashion supermodel. Whoever designed her was clearly an artist as well as a genius. Zero closed his eyes and frowned. Experiencing biological attraction was offensive to him, as far below him as the other animal acts he was reduced to in this suit of flesh and blood.  
"Forget it, buddy," Axel said, "Move on. If we ever get outta here, your best bet is to set yourself up in a nice little town somewhere and have fun causing as much havoc as you can. Just try not to choose one with a bunch of superheroes."  
"I can't do that," Zero snapped, "I can't. I-" He clenched his fist and ground his teeth together in what appeared to be a moment of serious emotional turmoil. Sweat dripped down his face from where it had begun to form on his brow. "_I can't!_" he roared, and Axel's smug visage slipped into one of vague concern, as he developed the impression that this may just be the most deranged and most dangerous individual out of the bunch of them.  
"Tell me," Zero growled, "Just tell me that you wouldn't exact the bloodiest and most severe vengeance against that blue freak if you had the chance, if you really had the _chance_."  
"Oh sure," Axel replied, "If I had the _chance_."  
"Without hesitation," Shred added, "Heh...heheh...heheheheh."  
"Instantly," Kardot said.  
"You!" Zero exclaimed, and pointed to the fifth prisoner, the squirrel who called himself The Commando.  
"Never heard of him," he replied, "Leave me out of this."  
"There will be pain for Sonic," Zero snarled, and looked out the window again with his face contorted in spite. His right eye and the side of his lips twitched steadily. "There will be pain and death, and if I could bring him back just to kill him again, I would. I know of no other way to acheive release from this prison of anguish."  
He grasped one of the bars with one trembling hand and lightly touched his temple with the other.

XIII

The day wore on in Desolation. Concern was building in Sonic's heart and gut, for despite he and his companions spending the day questioning the residents of this town, they were no closer to finding out the location of the Rune. Nobody seemed to have any idea what they were talking about, and it seemed they were wasting their time and going in circles.  
What began to concern Espio, however, was the changing state of Sonic's mood as the morning progressed. The hedgehog was less chirpy, less easy-going and thoroughly less fun to be around. His contempt for the people of Desolation was growing as quickly as his mood was dropping, and he began cursing them as 'rednecks' and 'hicks' and 'halfwits'.  
"Are you okay, Sonic?" he asked at one point, and the hedgehog looked at him as though confused.  
"Well, not really," he replied, "I'm sick of this stupid town and all the stupid robot-infested towns, floating cities and lunatic cults." He lowered his voice and Espio thought he heard him mutter "I just want to go home."  
"Hear hear," Niles responded, unsurprisingly.  
The three wanderers took a much-deserved break at about one in the afternoon, in the cafe where they had rested the previous day. It was the only cafe in the small town, but the coffee was cheap and Espio thought that Sonic could use a caffeine hit, if nothing else.  
"I skipped breakfast this morning, that's all it is," the hedgehog said, his spirits brightening slightly. "Man. You'd think _somebody_ would be able to help us in this little town."  
"Dear hedgehog, how do you know that this rock of yours is even here?" Niles asked.  
Sonic shook his head. "I just know," he said, "You've got a darn good library in your head, Niles, the information is reliable, I just don't know how old it is. It's possible they've taken the stone somewhere else." He didn't mention having half-dreamed the tower in the antiverse, the dark construct that marked this town as the original resting place of the ancient rune. Some things were better left unsaid, especially when they might possibly make the speaker sound more than a little crazy. Espio never really believed that the antiverse existed, even when they had actually been there. Conveniently for him, he had been under the influence of a powerful drug at the time, and fobbed the entire experience off as a libria-induced halluscination. Curse his stubborn ignorance! How could someone be so level-headed and yet so stupid? He just wanted to grab the chameleon by the scruff of the neck and beat it into him until-  
"Three capaccinos," announced the waitress flatly as she arrived with three cups of steaming coffee.  
"Say, miss," Espio said as polite as possible, "Do you know if there is a library or anything in town?"  
The waitress thought about it for a moment, sighing deeply as though to complain that answering questions was not in her job description. "In the town hall," she said at last, "It's not much of one."  
"Thanks," Espio replied as she walked away. "Well, that's something."  
Niles made an unpleasant choking sound and pushed his coffee cup away with the tips of his fingers. His lips were pursed and his brow furrowed.  
"I say, must be the new Mud Blend," he said, "I'd ask for tea instead but I'm actually frightened for my wellbeing."  
Sonic sipped his coffee. It tasted fine to him. "People aren't very friendly here, are they."  
Espio grunted. "Hey, maybe they blame us for killing that robot they loved so much."  
"Oh yeah, they're real devastated," Sonic replied, and pointed to a poster that was mounted in the cafe window. It was a full-colour sketch by Orlando Winterburn, depicting the robot Combaticon in a heroic pose, the text underneath reading 'JUSTICE BRIGADE COMICS: THE _DEATH_ OF COMBATICON! THE BIGGEST ISSUE YET! COMING SOON!'  
"I bet Orlando has another bestseller on his hands."  
"I'm telling you," Niles insisted, "There is something wretchedly unnatural about these town. All these shady characters and whatnot-"  
Sonic was about to raise his voice to Niles, to tell him that for the very last time he should stop spouting paranoid conspiracy theories that did nothing to further their cause, but he never got a chance to get past the first word.  
The town was rocked by a massive explosion that rattled all the windows and overturned furniture. It was the same sound once again as had been heard the previous night, although this time it was surely closer. Sonic felt the heat of whatever it had been. He heard the waitress scream. Espio dropped his coffee and it drenched the table top.  
"_Whoa!_" the chameleon exclaimed, "Sounds like there's more action going down!"  
Sonic was already out of his seat. "Let's see if we can catch what's going on!"  
"Oh yes," Niles said, unenthusiastically, "Let's."

XIV

The robot that the people of Desolation had named Arsenal was spectacularly more thoroughly disintegrated after its destruction than Combaticon had been, and even though Sonic jogged at a speed most people couldn't even sprint, he didn't arrive in time to witness it. The assailant had fled the scene once again, and the only resident to beat Sonic to the remains was the robot Rustbucket, whose emotion could not be gauged as he or it stared at the smoking crater with sightless, painted eyes.  
"Wow... another one bites the dust," said Sonic, though his sympathy for the fates of robots was negligable.  
Very little of the former tank-robot was recognisable for what it had been. The dirt road was blackened in an elliptical crater, with lumps of red-hot metal scrap in the bottom of it, sizzling. The robot's head was more or less intact, but the rest of the metal had effectively been deprocessed into utter oblivion, returned to the ground from whence it came.  
The town quickly degenerated into panic mode when it was discovered that the second of their loyal mechanical protectors had been destroyed.  
The sheriff's wide crocodilian grin was absent when he appeared on the scene, pushing his way through the crowd with recognised authority. He stood at the top of the crater, chewing gum slowly and peering into the smoking hole with some kind of contempt. He then shifted his gaze to Sonic with the same.  
"You see what went on here?"  
Sonic shook his head. "Sorry. But whoever did it can't have gotten far, surely."  
"I'll say," replied the sheriff, and narrowed his eyes. "Seems you were the first on the scene, stranger. Come to think of it, seems that this all started happening right after you came to town."  
"Oh come on, why don't you say it straight out?" Sonic asked, flustered and annoyed. It seemed his temper was a foot shorter since stepping into Desolation.  
The sheriff didn't reply, he merely stared at Sonic a moment longer and then looked up to glare at Espio and Niles, who had just arrived.  
"Ask _him_," Sonic insisted, pointing at Rustbucket, "_He_ was here before me, he must have seen who did it. Even if he didn't, he can at least tell you it wasn't me."  
"**IT CANNOT BE ASCERTAINED**," Rustbucket announced.  
"Oh, right. Thanks, buddy."  
The sheriff stepped away to take care of some other business, and Sonic's companions approached him so they could see into the hole.  
"Dude," Espio said.  
Niles frowned and kicked some of the soil with his shoe.  
"I say. Glass."  
"Whazzat?" Sonic asked.  
"Glass, dear hedgehog, the soil has been fused into black glass. And the metal has been melted into a lump. I shudder to imagine the kind of heat that could manage this."  
"I have to say," Espio added, "That I'm starting to get a bit worried about staying in this town much longer."  
"Oh, come on you guys!" Sonic protested, "So somebody with a vendetta is knocking off members of the Justice Brigade. What are they gonna do to us? Why would they? Once we find this rune we won't have to stick around for long, anyway."  
"Hey, I was just saying-"  
"Yeah, you were just whinging," Sonic cut in. "Have a bit of faith in me for once, okay? That fool sheriff already thinks I'm the one causing all of this, I don't need you on my back too."  
"Okay. Whatever." Espio crossed his arms and kicked at the dirt.

XV

The sheriff and the robot Rustbucket, the last surviving member of the Justice Brigade, entered the watch-house and looked over the prisoners as one might look over a family of cockroaches in the kitchen sink.  
"All right, you scum," the sheriff exclaimed, "Time to extract some answers."  
"The cowboy asserts his authority!" Axel gear shouted from the other side of the bars, "Yee-haaaw! I didn't think you had a real job, pardner, not with these robots running the show. Coulda sworn that star was made of aluminium foil."  
"Shut up!" the sheriff snapped.  
Shred chuckled softly to himself with that raspy, halted laugh. Zero, cross-legged on the floor, looked up darkly and without amusement. He looked the robot in what passed for its eyes, and had no way of telling whether it had the ability to look back into his.  
"Now," the sheriff continued, "There's trouble happening in my town. Big trouble. And I have the distinct impression that you scum have something to do with it."  
"Barking up the wrong tree," hissed The Commando.  
"You shut up, you're the worst, if anybody here is behind this, it's likely to be you." The sheriff frowned and dipped a hand into his pocket. He brought out a large set of archaeic keys on a ring. "Here's what I propose. The first one who spills his... or her... guts about this gets a significantly reduced sentence."  
Rustbucket's head swivelled so that he seemed to stare at that set of keys. Although the robot had no readable expression, Zero looked at the bulbous mechanical regulator and found that he suddenly understood everything.

"The town of Desolation, population six hundred and seven. Yet a comfortable, homely town it is not. For Desolation is a Black Spot, a magnet for the criminal elements. All manner of scum and villainy from the world over makes its way here, attracted to the town as ants are to sugar. A black town - and a black day. For today evil threatens to prevail. The Justice Brigade, three heroic machines whose only job is to protect Desolation from its onslaught of villainy, have been all but defeated by a force unknown. Combaticon and Arsenal, champions of justice, brutally destroyed. The fate of the town now rests in the hands of Rustbucket, the one surviving member of the Justice Brigade, the once powerful team of valiant robots created by the kindly and virtuous Professor-"  
Orlando Winterburn sat with his sketch-pad out in front of him, writing dialogue for his next comic adventure. He knew that it would, in all probability, be his last.  
"A crying shame," he said, "Now what am I going to do with my time?"  
"Perhaps you should find yourself a respectable profession," Niles suggested, but Espio poked him hard in the ribs.  
The three wandering adventurers had found Orlando in the cafe after the crowd had dissipated. The wolf was depressed, but appeared more upset about the impending death of his livelihood than by this new, strange and frightening threat to the town.  
Sonic was still steamed up about being accused by the sheriff, and things had been icy between himself and his companions. But as irritated as Espio was, he was every bit as concerned. He could tell that Niles' sentiments were similar.  
"Hey kid," Sonic said, "I know I've already asked you this, but we're starting to get desperate. Are you sure you've never heard anything about a special rock in town, a stone, a _rune_, that has a special significance to it?"  
"Huh," Orlando replied, but his attention was almost entirely focused on the task in front of him. "I dunno. I seem to remember something like that here years ago, but that was before the Justice Brigade. Some kind of research centre was here... they shut down because of all the crime. That's why the Professor built the Justice Brigade... Oh look, you've made me lose my concentration."  
"Fine," Sonic snapped, "I'll leave you to it, then. I'm going to find this library."  
Sonic left the cafe in a huff, unimpressed by the teenager's stories of heroes and villains. He thought them childish and pointless, but the irony was strong in this impression - for had he taken more of an interest in Orlando's tale, he would have been alerted much sooner as to the real nature of the trouble afoot in the town of Desolation. Had he known these things, he may even have seen it coming. As it happened, it took all of them by surprise.  
Orlando put his head down and continued composing his narration:  
"The fate of the town now rests in the hands of Rustbucket, the one surviving member of the Justice Brigade, the once powerful team of valiant robots created by the kindly and virtuous Professor Ivo Robotnik..."

Rustbucket stared at the sheriff's keys with hungry interest while the crocodile dangled them in front of the imprisoned criminals.  
"I know you want to get out of here," the sheriff said, "You've all been here a long time. The question is how badly you want this."  
The robot took a step closer to the sheriff, who didn't even notice, but Zero Tolerance grabbed a hold of the bars and gawked unblinking, with equal parts fascination and disbelief.  
"Day of the Supervillains," Rustbucket whispered, and only now did the sheriff turn his head, his eyebrow cocked and eyes slightly glazed in confusion.  
"What did you-"  
Rustbucket glocked the sheriff across the jaw with one heavy metal fist, hard enough to knock the crocodile unconscious before he even hit the floor. The keys flew upward into the open air, clinking against themselves quietly, and were caught by the other hand of the attacking robot. There he stood, keys in one hand, sheriff at his feet, painted grin smiling at nothing and for nobody, although to Zero it no longer appeared to be a happy grin so much as a grin of absolute, irreversable and unrestrained insanity.  
"The tides have turned," the hedgehog rasped, "There is a God. My stars, there is a God, and He is the God of Vengeance."  
"What just happened?" Axel asked, "Can somebody explain this to me?"  
Rustbucket took two hulking, loud steps towards the prison, his movements were primitive and stilted, like a robot in an old-time science fiction film.  
"**THE JUSTICE BRIGADE HAS BEEN DELETED**," the robot stated, in a hollow, oily voice.  
Shred perked up, staring at the robot with his good eye. Zero looked around and saw that the attention of all the prisoners was undivided. Even Kardot was attentive, though inexpressive.  
"**THEY SAY THERE IS NO MORE CRIME**."  
"Well, that's just fine and dandy," Shred replied, "But-"  
"**NO! IT! ISN'T!**," Rustbucket screeched, and now his voice sounded like rusty gears that badly needed to be greased, "**ALL OF A SUDDEN THIS TOWN HAS TURNED INTO A HAPPY-HAPPY LAND! CRIME NEEDS GOOD AND GOOD NEEDS CRIME AND NO CRIME EQUALS CHAOS WITHIN ORDER!**"  
The robot raised the keys to the lock of the prison door.  
"**THE DAY OF THE SUPERVILLAINS IS AT HAND!**" he screeched from a location behind his painted, unmoving lips.  
Zero Tolerance clasped his hands together, his heart beating like a kettle drum, spittle flying from his mouth from each rasping breath. The sound of the keys clicking inside the lock sounded like Sonic the Hedgehog's death rattle.

XVI

Niles was ecstatic, beside himself with glee, even though there weren't many books in what this town passed as its library. Three shelves stood over him, around a single small table with four chairs, and a desk with a librarian, who just glimpsed up at him and down again at her book.  
Sonic and Espio entered a few seconds afterwards, Espio panting softly  
"Hey Niles, how come you bolted like that?" the chameleon asked.  
Niles turned to them. "Books!" he announced, "Reading material! Oh, what joy, after all this time tramping through the desert, over the hill and vale, finally something to-"  
"_Shhh_," the librarian hushed, "This is a library. Please be quiet."  
"Ohh, how lovely," the fox replied, as he clasped his hands together over his heart.  
"Excuse me," Sonic asked, "But do you know where we might find some information on porcupines?"  
"Sure," the librarian replied, and she pointed vaguely over towards the furthest shelf on the right of her, "There used to be a really big porcupine research setup here, but they lost interest after the artifact was stolen. They never did interpret that symbol, either. Rotten shame."  
"Hey, what?" Sonic asked, his eyes widening, "What did you say? Stolen?"  
"Yep."  
"Oh no! How long ago?"  
"I couldn't say. A year and a half, perhaps. After the professor arrived, but before he built the Justice Brigade." It seemed that the residents of this town all measured time relative to the various deeds of this professor and his crimefighting robots.  
Sonic slapped his forehead and groaned. "What a waste of time, we've lost another one!"  
"Hang on Sonic, that's a good thing!" Espio replied, "If we can't find it, surely Cinos won't be able to either!"  
"Yeah, unless it's he who stole it."  
"That can't be true, you've been following him since he set off."  
Sonic shook his head, "Only since he set off from the Great Forest. He's been planning this for a while, now, he could have taken it before I even knew he was up to something."  
"_Shhhh_," the librarian hushed.  
"Well, what now?" Niles asked, keeping his voice down.  
Sonic threw his arms up in the air. His expression betrayed a bizarre, anguished set of emotions that neither of his companions could read, like a bunch of emotions tried to march through a doorframe at once and got stuck there. "Why should _I_ always be the one who has to say what we do and what we don't do? Why do I have to be in charge of the situation _every single time_ some psychopath tries to take over the world? Did I _ask_ for this burden? Did I _ask_ to be the only person who does the right thing by people, just because I can run really really fast? No way! Heck, you can _take_ my speed! I don't _want_ it anymore!"  
With that outburst, the hedgehog spun around and stormed out of the building.  
"What was that all about?" Niles asked, after a moment of uncomfortable silence.  
Espio shook his head. "You were right," he said, "There's something going on here, more than this just being a depressing place. It's affecting us all, and it's gonna get worse unless we figure it out."

XVII

"Take care of Amy," Kethriel said.  
The Shambler, Robotnik's deadly assassin prototype, sank its claws into Kethriel's leg and tore it apart as the machine climbed.  
"My sister, take care of her. She doesn't have anybody. Okay? Tell her I love her."  
But was it really a robot down there, its orange eyes aflame like the core of the sun? It was dark down there, and Sonic's vision was distorted with tears. All that he could really see was the silhouette of something that came vaguely in the shape of a hedgehog. In his mind's eye he looked down and saw Cinos climbing his friend's leg and ripping it up. His evil twin cackled and snarled as he dangled over the edge of oblivion, the Whitewyrm coiling around his body in intimate harmony. He looked up at Sonic and held out his hand, laughing amidst Kethriel's cries.  
"How about a hand, dear brother? Take my hand, Sonic. Your friends are all going to die, you're too useless to stop it, you might as well contribute instead. You'll see. You'll fall for me, you'll come around. It's inevitable."  
"Listen Sonic," Kethriel said, "You're the best thing that's ever happened to the Freedom Fighters, I know it. Sally knows it. You- you're going to win this for us."  
Sonic burst into tears. "Keth, what if I can't? What if I can't? _What if I can't_?"

The blue hedgehog ran through the town, almost crying, almost screaming, almost collapsing into the dirt and pulling his spines out by their roots. Whenever he dared open his eyes, he saw Cinos standing before him, grinning and holding up the runes he sought to collect, and which slowly but surely he was collecting.  
"You can't win, Sonic," Cinos told him, "I have the advantage and I will beat you every time. Don't even try."  
Sonic fell to his knees and hid his face behind his hands. This was it, this was some kind of nervous breakdown, an emotional collapse. Years of holding the world upon his shoulders had caught up with him and he had lost his sanity, right here in the middle of nowhere, in search of a rock so well hidden in this town of rocks that he might well still be looking for it when Cinos ascends to the throne of God and knocks the deity off his own pedestal, if that was indeed his ultimate ability.  
He felt as though some demon had taken over his mind. He was a mess of dark thoughts and incapacitating emotions. Before his eyes he witnessed a cinematic rerun of his every failure, culminating in the violent demise of his onetime friend and mentor Kethriel Rosethorne, who never should have died.  
Culminating, catastrophically, in the fall of Mobitropolis to the machinations of Ivo Robotnik.  
"I only delay the inevitable," Sonic said to himself, "I'm a pest, not a hero. When have I ever really fought a successful fight?"  
All things tended toward the path of least resistance in this world, and that path was the way of evil. It was more difficult to be virtuous than conniving, easier to succumb to lust and vengeance than to take control of one's emotions and strive for something more. Similarly, a virtuous life was always doomed to failure, for destruction would always be the easier way. Mobitropolis had taken thousands of years for noble mobians to build, and less than an hour for a single crooked mind to destroy. What was this if not the same situation on a larger scale? How could anyone ever hope for a different result?  
Cinos had beaten Sonic every single time the two of them had gone head to head, and with this knowledge in his mind and in his heart, and with his motivation in a puddle around his feet, Sonic gave in to the misery of complete impotance.

XVIII

"'The Rune of Dark Thoughts', it was called," Espio said. He and Niles sat before an open book in the Desolation town library. "Oh my... this is pretty bad."  
As it turned out, Desolation had once been the hub of porcupine-related research across all of Mobius. Famous researchers (None of whom Espio had ever heard; All of whom Niles had) from all over the world had come here and written books. The one that lay open before them now was a textbook written by a big-time archaeologist named R. Carrion, documenting the study of the artifact they had dug up here in Desolation - one of the only physical artifacts that had ever been found of the long-dead porcupine civilisation, and an object widely regarded to have been somehow cursed.  
The Rune of Dark Thoughts. An almost ordinary-looking stone, flattened on one side and marked with an untranslatable symbol - three strokes, two straight and the third waved - an image that some reported hurt to look at it. The stone was found by a farmer who dug it up from its resting place forty feet below the ground, while he was digging a hole for a well. It was more than dumb luck that he found the unique object among so many ordinary rocks; he claimed he was drawn to it, that some unnatural force compelled him to find it.  
One week afterward, he committed suicide by throwing himself down the very same well.  
It was the first of many tragedies to become associated with the ancient artifact. In the few years that followed, there were seven suicides in Desolation, all of them people who had been closely associated with the Rune, four of them important researchers. Many of the people who worked with the stone complained of nightmares, depression and stress. There were marriage breakups, mental illnesses and even fistfights among the research team.  
The town itself suffered from the stone's discovery, as well. It was only a year after its excavation that Desolation's economy began to dry up. Surprisingly, it had once been a rather large town, and despite the publicity generated by the porcupinian research industry, which should have put Desolation through an economic boom, it nevertheless went into a great depression and shrivelled into something that might eventually become a ghost town. Crime and unemployment shot up to uncanny levels, and lowlifes from all over Mobius began to show up in town as though they were called there by some irresistable persuasion. The kinds of career miscreants to which Orlando Winterburn would lovingly refer as _villains_ for his comic series, eccentric and overzealous criminals with all sorts of quirks and trademarks, all seemed to wind up in Desolation eventually. It was as though this small town were a beacon that only the rogues of Mobius could clearly see.  
"That's the answer," Espio said, "These Runes... there's something about them that affects the minds of the people in their proximity. I'd bet that's why everywhere we've found one of these things, the people around them have been like in the thrall of some kind of spell."  
Niles shook his head. "My dear lizard, your assertion is based on fallacious reasoning. I believe you have misinterpreted cause and effect. The people of Stratosphereon, for example, were corrupted by a particular drug, not by any magic stone."  
"But cause and effect are tricky," Espio replied, "Every cause is really just the effect of another cause. You have to wonder whether a system of government like in the City of Clouds would even have emerged if not for the Rune in the middle of it all. The people who come here aren't crooked because of the stone, either, they're already criminals. My people would probably still be deeply religious even if there wasn't a Rune where they settled. The point is that these things _all come together_ somehow, and that it's more than a coincidence. It's like these stones pick out a particular emotion in people, an emotion that's already there, and just stir it into a frenzy, radiate it until it becomes cancerous. That's what's happening to Sonic right now, his doubts and his anger, his _dark thoughts_, are turning malignant. And can't you feel it, too? Don't you feel like your fuse has shortened since you've been here? I do. If it was just me, I would think it's just a residual effect from the libria treatment, but it's not just me. It's this whole place, this whole town. And you know what else it means? The Rune hasn't been stolen at all, just hidden. It's still here, somewhere."  
"I find it all very difficult to believe," Niles admitted.  
Espio let out an uneasy laugh. "Believe me, I know. I'm the most skeptical guy in the world. I tell you, though, I've seen things over the past few months that have rocked my world, kept me awake nights. I mean... did he do that... thing to you? That thing with his... mind?"  
Niles appeared uncomfortable, but said nothing.  
"In any event," Espio said, "I don't know what this is. If there's a rational explanation under all of this, then so be it. If there's not and I'm just going crazy... well, that's fine too, it's _something_. Right now, though, we have to find Sonic and wrench him back into a normal state of mind, somehow. Before it's too late."  
Even as he said this, he was aware of a significant clamour outside the small library, in the town hall. It sounded like riotous laughter, though with a sinister and malevolent edge. Espio and Niles turned their attention wordlessly to the doorway that led out to the main hall, both of them already realising that the situation just became much more complicated.

XIX

The prisoners of Desolation's Justice Brigade - and one of its members - stormed the town hall with all the rambunctiousness of a gang of youths up to mischief, but it was clear that they had much more than mischief on their minds. Most of them had been reunited with weaponry and other items which had been taken from them upon their arrest; The Commando cradled in his arms a ridiculously large chain-gun, its bullets formed chains that were flung over both his shoulders. He wore a helmet with a telescopic sight over one eye, and huge black metal boots that strapped to his shins and announced his arrival for yards with every step. Axel Gear wore a full set of dark violet medieval-style armour, complete with a visor that obscured his eyes. A rocket jetpack was attached to the back of it in a bizarre meeting between history and the future. A longsword was holstered on his hip.  
Zero Tolerance was most happy having been reunited with the robotic suit he had so lovingly and painstakingly pieced together over the years. He had laughed heartily when he flipped the switches of its motherboard and heard the various components powering up, one by one.  
They had strung up the sheriff and dragged him from the watch-house to the town hall in a humiliating display of vengeance, cackling and whooping all the way. Townsfolk stayed inside their homes and observed from the windows, terrified. Never had so many notorious rogues been free in Desolation at once, but that was not the most frightening fact. What chilled most people right to the bone was that the Justice Brigade would not fight for them this time. Two were dead, and in a heartbreaking act of betrayal, the third seemed to be working with the enemy. This was possibly the darkest day that this town had ever known.  
Shred the Raptor wore the sheriff's hat upon his head, the silver star badge pinned onto it, and led the procession of villainy across the town's square to its centre. The statue of the Justice Brigade stood tall and proud, and each of the rogues took turns laughing and sneering at it. The Commando reached behind his back and withdrew a rocket launcher he carried like a sling, resting it on his shoulder with a satisfied hiss.  
"There's a new order in this town!" he announced, and fired a missile at the statue. A fiery, ground-shaking, window-rattling explosion ripped through the town square, and the noble statue with its fountains and plaques blew apart, raining marble and flames all around. The six rogues cheered and barked laughter.  
"Sexy," commented Kardot, idly tendering a medium-sized pistol with her long, sharp-nailed fingers. Zero sneaked a glance at her as she watched the flames in thrall, not sure whether he had really hoped to find that she was referring to him. Kardot was entanced by the explosion, as though it had awakened a lust for destruction deep in her semi-artificial chassis that had long lay dormant and extinguished.  
"That's right," he whispered, "That's what it's like to rediscover your calling as a machine of war. How badly I have missed that."  
"To the town hall, ladies and gentlemen!" Axel proclaimed, and he held his sword high like a military commander of old, "Time to introduce this town to the new reign of the Injustice Brigade!"  
"Hear hear!" Shred hissed, "Hah! Hahahahah!"  
And they had gone. Banded together, they dragged the sheriff to the steps of the hall and tied him to a pillar, while The Commando blew the main doors off their hinges with another rocket attack. The few staff inside the building fled in panic, and the rogues had only to step inside to claim the hall and the town for themselves.  
"**MISSION: COMPLETE!**" Rustbucket screeched, his unbearably loud and oily voice echoing through the hall.  
Woe and behold, for the tide had indeed turned for the worse in the black spot town of Desolation.

XX

Sonic's heart was a black spot all of its own. The hedgehog sat alone in his hired room with his head in his hands. Only once before had he known depression like this, so intense, so crippling and heavy - that had been the day he had learned the truth about his creation at the hands of Dr Robotnik, a genetic anomoly with no purpose but to be a biological blueprint for a robot built to think it was alive. This hadn't been a cause for depression for Sonic for a long time, and the robot in question was very recently deceased, but the root of the difficulty was the same; Uselessness.  
This time, however, it was everything that Sonic stood for that was held to question. In their last confrontation, Cinos had told him that, in the end, evil would always win, because evil had less to lose. Evil had nothing to fear, and that made it strong. Evil loved nothing, and was devoid of the tactical weakness of love. When two opponents were matched in every other respect, it was the one with less moral concern who would reign victorious. It's easier to merely protect oneself than to protect anything else.  
And how did this theory hold up to scrutiny? How did it test against Sonic's experiences? In the short term, Sonic was used to winning. He was strong, powerful, agile. He could take anything that was thrown at him, had beaten every opponent he had faced. But had this saved Mobitropolis from one evil mind bent only on destruction?  
Sonic was quickly beginning to realise that what he dealt was only a parody of justice, a satirical and self-defeating crusade that failed to truly achieve any real end - Sonic won every battle but lost every war.  
He looked out the window and was unsurprised that there was nothing happening in Desolation. He wondered if it might not suit him to settle down and live in a town like this. Not this exact town, where comic-book adventures seemed to entertain the locals on frequent occasions, but one where he could disappear and make his life anew, super speed or none.  
"Fate is a joke," he said aloud, "If there is a God, then He must be having one big hearty laugh, looking down on us like this. Giving His subjects the ability to choose good from evil, then making evil more powerful. Hah."  
There was a knock on the door, and Sonic barely had the energy to shout that it was open.  
The handle turned slowly, and the door creaked open just a little. A familiar teenage wolf poked his head through and looked at Sonic with an expression of exasperation.  
"Sonic, you gotta come!"  
"What is it?" Sonic asked, uninterested.  
"The supervillains!" Orlando replied, "They've taken over the town! It's terrible! And Rustbucket... He seems to be working with them!" He looked both ways, as though there might be spies around, then whispered, "I think Rustbucket killed the rest of the Justice Brigade."  
"I don't care," Sonic mumbled.  
"Quick! If you act now you might be able to- What did you say?"  
"I said I don't... care."  
Orlando looked as though he had been struck. "What do you mean? You're the closest thing we have to a superhero, now that the Justice Brigade are gone! You _have_ to do something!"  
"Oh, get your head out of your comic books!" Sonic snapped, "There's no such thing as superheroes. I'm just a hedgehog, and your Justice Brigade were just a bunch of stupid robots. Those people out there are just people. They wear armour and masks and like hurting people, but they're not _supervillains_ and there's no reason to believe that they somehow have to be defeated just because they're bad. That's naive."  
"But- but- the Justice Brigade said that justice always prevails!"  
Sonic snorted. "Oh, yeah. And that attitude helped them out a whole lot, didn't it."  
Orlando for a moment looked like he might cry. His eyes receded into their sockets, veiled by a wall of tears. But he blinked them away and frowned.  
"I thought you were a hero," he spat, and promptly left the room, slamming the door behind him.  
"They all do, kid," Sonic said glumly, "They all do."

XXI

The supervillains of Desolation made the most of their freedom by trashing the town hall and making it into their own private party house. Axel Gear took about sixteen seconds to locate alcohol, and the other flesh-and-blood members of the party were quite happy about this.  
Zero wasn't quite sure. He opened a bottle of bourbon and sniffed it, then scrunched his face up and made an unimpressed choking sound.  
"You actually ingest this stuff?" he asked.  
"No, you swallow it," Axel replied, "What's wrong with you? Haven't you ever had a _drink_ before?"  
Zero raised the bottle to his mouth and took a small swig.  
"How does it taste?" the opossom asked, amused.  
"Like fuel," Zero replied, frowning.  
Axel laughed and took the bottle from him. "I'll mix it with some cola for you, it'll go down better. We need ice, too. Oh _man_, how long has it been since my last drink?"  
He turned to look for the kitchen, and saw The Commando, readily smashing everything in sight with an unhealthy enthusiasm for destruction.  
"Hey there!" Axel exclaimed, "Settle down, you're going to bring the whole place down on our heads. What's wrong with you?"  
"I hate this town," the squirrel replied, and to punctuate the sentiment he smashed a sculpture against the floor. "You have no idea how much. These idiot people and their stupid robots made things bad for me, and they're not so innocent, either. They used me as a scapegoat, spread lies about me so their little comic book would sell better. I never killed their beloved Professor, either. After he built the Justice Brigade he nicked off and left the town alone, in search of these emeralds he was always looking for. He didn't care about this town, not a bit." He looked at Rustbucket and narrowed his eyes. "Matter of fact, I'm not at all surprised that his robots went bad. I'm even inclined to think that's what they were supposed to do. Everyone loved him so much, but he' a bad egg, that Professor. I get the feeling he's worse than any of us. Now that's irony."  
Rustbucket clunked around the town hall with none of the vigour of the others. It was as close to a peacock-strut as he could manage, but looked much more like a penguin-waddle, if the penguin was wearing pants made of lead. He observed the scenery with his painted-on grin.  
"**AT LAST THIS TOWN IS ALL MINE OH THE JOYNESS!**" the robot screeched.  
"He's got an ego on him, that droid," The Commando gruffed, "Gonna talk itself to extinction at the end of my gun real soon, just you wait."  
At this moment, Shred the Raptor came barreling through a door at the back of the hall, and all of his teeth were showing in a grin that could scare children to death.  
"Check out what I found!" he exclaimed, "Fresh meat! They were trying to get out a back window. I'm going to roast them for my dinner. Heheh."  
In the raptor's claws was a rope, and it was tied around the necks of a glum-looking chameleon and a terrified fox. Zero recognised the captives immediately, and his two mechanical claw-arms snaked out from the back of his robot suit, seeming almost to dance in the air like the tails of two excited animals.  
"Well, well, well. The friends of Sonic the Hedgehog. Now this is a lucky break."  
"Where's the kitchen?" Shred asked.  
"Oh, there'll be no cooking of these two tonight," Zero said, and with one thick rubber-gloved hand he grabbed Espio by the jaw hard enough to leave a mark. "They're our guests of honour. They're going to help us with our hedgehog problem." He pulled his face close to the chameleon's, and smiled. "I'm going to kill your friend Sonic," he said, "Just like I promised. I will pull out his spines and use them to poke out his eyes. This is one robot he's never going to get the better of."  
"You're not a rob-" Espio began, but in a sudden spike of fury, Zero punched him in the side of the head before he could even finish the word, and the chameleon fell over sideways.  
"Loosen up," Axel suggested, and handed the black hedgehog a glass of bourbon and cola with ice cubes floating on top. Zero grabbed it without taking his eyes off the fallen chameleon, swallowed it in three gulps and then crushed the glass in his hand.  
"I think I'll kill Sonic's friends while he's still alive," he said, "I want to show him what pain really is. I want him to suffer like he's never suffered before. I want him to be crying when he dies."  
The day wore on into afternoon and then into night. The newly freed villains of Desolation partied loudly and enthusiastically, gorging themselves on food and drink denied to them for so long, digging out important-looking documents and defiling them in creative ways, and otherwise causing irrevocable damage to the symbols of justice and freedom that the people of this town regarded so highly.  
More dignified was Kardot, who stood out of the way and observed the behaviour with an eye of contempt.  
"Boys will be boys," she muttered, "Biologicals will be biologicals. They have no idea what idiots they are making of themselves." She turned to Rustbucket, who stood sentient beside her. "Not like you and I, honey." She kicked over a half-full bottle of dark spirits, and watched idly as it dribbled out onto the tiled floor.  
Zero sat in a dark corner, brooding. His head lolled one way, then the other, his eyelids drooping. He raised a glass of bourbon to his mouth (almost missing the target) and sipped at it, puckering his lips at the burning-sweet taste of it. He placed it on the ground and tried to pick himself up, but he tittered to the side and kicked the glass over, its contents splashing onto the tiles and down the wall. Standing and trying to walk, he stumbled and leaned against the wall for support.  
"Hey, whoa!" Axel laughed, surly, and stumbled his way over to the struggling hedgehog, "Need a hand there, Tipsy McStagger? I think you need another drink!"  
Zero turned around lightening-quick, his mechanical arms rising above his shoulders like monoliths, and launched himself at the drunken opossum. One of the robot arms took Axel around the neck, and the other held itself inches from his face with a bladed attachment swinging back and forth threateningly. Axel was too surprised to do anything but cry out and flail his arms.  
"What have you done to me?" Zero demanded, and his voice betrayed his heavy state of intoxication, his words running into each other and coming out flat and barely coherent. "You've poisoned me. My reflexes are shot, my muscles are lazy and sedated, my mind is racing so that I can't focus on a single thought. I- I can't even see properly, I'm shutting down, I'm going to die. I'll kill you first."  
"You're _wasted_!" Axel shrieked, watching the blade that threatened to take off his head, "You're _plastered_! Toasted! Off your face! You've had a little too much, man, come on!"  
Zero squinted one eye closed so hard that the other one nearly threatened to pop out, and the mechanical arms lost their grip on their victim and swayed back and forth like two cobras. Whatever means that Zero used to control them had also been affected by his drunkenness, and he had lost the concentration necessary to make them work properly.  
"I hate this flessssssh body," he slurred, "This tipsy, uncoordinated-" He gulped, and then stumbled outside to be sick.  
Shred the Raptor laughed so hard that he fell over, and his false eye popped out and bounced away. The red glass ball, with its reptilian slit-pupil embedded in its center, rolled to a stop against Espio's foot, and the chameleon picked it up and observed it with obvious disgust.  
"Do you think we could get away if we made a run for it?" Niles asked, careful to speak softly enough so as not to be heard. Some of their enemies were still sober, and he didn't trust the sadistic glint in that anteater girl's eyes.  
"I think our chances are pretty slim," Espio replied. "We probably have a better chance of survival if we stay put, anyway. That black hedgehog seems to want us alive to use against Sonic. I don't want to make anyone angry enough to forgo their plan. I just hope that Sonic can get the better of all these guys."  
"I do believe a bigger concern is whether Sonic will come around from this episode of his," Niles replied.  
Espio shook his head. "He will," he said, but he didn't look so sure. "He has to."

XXII

Zero Tolerance opened his eyes late the next morning. They were dry and bloodshot, and he felt mildly fevered. His stomach was flipping somersaults while a team of council workers conducted roadwork in the center of his skull.  
"What... is... wrong... with... me..."  
"Hey, wakey wakey," Axel called from somewhere in the swirling void of the world. "Got a bit blotto last night, didn't you? At least now we know why they call you Zero Tolerance."  
"My head-" Zero pawed at the scar on his face, suddenly sure that his injury had cracked open again, as this was the worst pain he had felt since Amy Rose had broken his skull with a mallet. His hand was still thickly gloved and he felt nothing, but at least it came away without blood.  
"It's called a hangover," Axel said, and Zero managed to put the world back into focus. He was feeling seedy and not at all well. Axel stood over him with his hair in a mess and his own eyes bloodshot, drinking milk out of the carton. Shred lay a few feet away, fast asleep.  
"I am never partaking in that activity again for as long as I live," the hedgehog said.  
"Sure," Axel replied, "That's what you say this morning. Tonight you'll be reaching for the grog again, trust me."  
"That makes no sense."  
The opossum shrugged. "You're right," and walked off. With a weak grunt, Zero picked himself up (his armour felt as though it weighed a thousand tons) and squinted in the late morning light.  
Axel returned a few moments later with two glasses of red fizzing liquid. He handed one to Zero and drank the other in two gulps.  
"What's this?" Zero asked.  
"Medication. Specially formulated for those big nights on the town. Drink this, and plenty of water, and you'll feel just fine in an hour or so.  
Zero drank it. It tasted sour and vile. He threw the empty glass over his shoulder so that it smashed against the wall.  
"Where are the droids?"  
Kardot spoke from the dark corner where she had been standing motionless. "I will assume for now that you weren't just referring to me, because anybody who calls me a _droid_ generally has more than a hangover to worry about."  
"The tin can with the clown face is out back somewhere," Axel added, "Or maybe he's gone, or broken. Who cares?"  
"_All right, soldiers!_" came the booming voice of The Commando, and the main doors to the town hall were thrown open. Zero and Axel cringed in the sunlight, and the khaki-clad squirrel was sharply silhouetted against the morning sky. "_Eleven hundred hours, you scum! Stand to attention!_"  
Shred was awake, now, squinting and hissing, although it was common knowledge that it was better to let sleeping velociraptors lie.  
"Close those doors!" Axel demanded.  
"_Negative!_" The Commando replied, "_The time for laziness and drunken tomfoolery has passed!_ Who do you think had to guard you fools all night while you were passed out like sitting ducks? As you amatuers clearly do not have the makings of true criminal masterminds, it is left to me to take the reins of this operation! Now _stand to attention!_"  
"I don't like being pushed around, honey," Kardot said darkly.  
"Well, you're just going to have to live with that. An _army_ needs a _commander_, soldier, and I have more experience than the rest of you in these matters."  
"**GOOD MORNING FRIENDS AND EVILDOERS!**" came the shrieking, tin-muffled voice of Rustbucket, and the robot came clanking into the middle of the standoff as though nothing was amiss.  
"And this," The Commando continued, grinning, "This is the first of our problems. This walking watering-can, this bulbous catastrophe of badly-assembled junkyard shrapnel who helped put each and every one of us behind bars. Who decided that this thing should be free to walk among us as our equal? It's an insult of the most degrading kind."  
Behind Rustbucket's hull came a series of clicks and whirrs, apparently the sounds of complex calculation from the depths of wherever the robot's mind was truly situated. Finally there was a happy bell chime, and Rustbucket spoke. "**YOUR TONE HAS BEEN RATED: UNACCEPTABLE.**"  
"And what are you going to do about it?" The Commando asked, "Just a pile of weak, rusting scrap that I wouldn't even give to a child to play with, surrounded by some of the most notorious criminals on the face of Mobius. I don't know about the rest of you, but I feel like a bit of target practice." He reached behind his back and drew a large semi-automatic firearm.  
"**YOU WILL CEASE THE FOLLOWING ACTIVITIES:**" Rustbucket announced, and proceeded to list The Commando's infractions, "**VERBAL INTIMIDATION. THREATENING USE OF A FIREARM. DISRESPECT OF AUTHORITY. LITTERING.**" Zero was standing quite near the robot, and noticed with some interest that Rustbucket was radiating a lot of warmth. His metal hull seemed to be heating up to an alarming extent.  
"What's the matter?" The Commando asked, and took a step forward, a twinkle in his eye and an animal grin on his face, "The Justice Brigade aren't around to back you up this time, are they? You're all alone, surrounded by enemies, all armed to the teeth. And what are _you_ going to do? Rust on us?"  
"**WARNING! DEFENSIVE MEASURES UNDERWAY IN FIVE! FOUR!**"  
"Oh! Oh! Watch out!" The Commando burst into uncontrollable spasms of laughter. "The trashcan's going to fight back!"  
"**THREE!**"  
"Go on, then!" The squirrel hopped from one foot to another, and Zero had to take another step back from the robot because the heat emenating from its chassis was unbearable.  
"**TWO!**"  
The Commando's smile faded and he pointed his massive gun at the robot's crudely painted face.  
"**ONE!**"  
"Eat lead, you hunk of-"  
A square door with a rusty hinge mounted on Rustbucket's chest squeaked open like a medicine cabinet, and The Commando stopped silent mid-sentence, staring into the open compartment with an unreadable expression. It was the last expression that face ever displayed, and if it were to be analysed it might be concluded to be one part horror to three parts confusion, with some amount of humour thrown in for good luck. Nobody else was in a position to see inside Rustbucket's bulbous belly, and this would prove fortunate for everybody, except of course The Commando.  
The sound that followed seemed almost loud enough to make a person's ears bleed like bullet wounds, the light almost strong enough to flash fry a whale carcass. Zero didn't even know what was going on until he realised that his already throbbing head felt as though it was being ripped apart with giant hooks, and he was flying through the air towards the far side of the hall. He heard screaming, then a kind of thick droning deadness like a distant dial tone in an empty cave, that welled up inside his head and covered his ears like a heavy blanket. For an alarming few seconds he thought his accursedly fragile biological hearing had been forever broken, but slowly that drone faded and the sounds returned to the world.  
When he sat up, he saw Rustbucket standing sentry where he had been all along, but The Commando was gone. All that remained in his place was a pile of black ashes and a pair of smoking military boots.  
"Whoa," Axel sighed, looking back and forth between the robot and the ashes. He looked as though he had just witnessed a horse hatching from an egg.  
"**DISSENT HAS BEEN DISCRETELY ELIMINATED!**" Rustbucket bellowed, "**NOW IF THERE ARE NO MORE OBJECTIONS WE SHALL SALLY FORTH AND PREPARE THIS TOWN FOR THE GLORIOUS REIGN OF LORD ROBOTNIK! LET EVIL ONCE AGAIN RULE!**"  
"Uhh... heheh... what do we do now?" Shred asked.  
Zero continued gazing at the remarkably, and surprisingly, powerful machine that had been disguised as something vaguely resembling a cereal box mascot. His head had begun to clear and he narrowed his bloodshot eyes.  
"Hedgehog hunting."

XXIII

"I've got it! Crisis of conscience!"  
Sonic looked up from his cup of bad coffee, irritated, to find Orlando Winterburn looking down at him with a grin in the tiny cafe.  
"What?" the hedgehog snapped.  
"Crisis of conscience! You know, when the hero goes through a period of discouragement? You're searching for yourself and you need help to recover your senses so you can take on the bad guys! _Zap! Pow!_"  
"You know, you're really starting to annoy me."  
"You've become detached from your powers by an onset of existential angst!" Orlando pressed, "You need to do some serious soul-searching, dude! _Zing!_ And... uh... can you get it done pretty fast?"  
"Look, go away, will you?" Sonic insisted, "I'm going to find my friends and then I'm going to go home. Cinos can have his stupid runes and everyone can run around playing supervillain as much as they want. Nothing I do matters here, don't you understand that? I'm done fighting _bad guys_, I'm done fighting _anything_."  
"You're in denial!" Orlando said, and winked.  
"_Scat!_"  
The teenager left Sonic in a worse mood, for not only was he depressed but now he was angry as well. Why were his dark emotions bubbling so easily to the surface lately? He had no explanation but for the cumulative stress of a life of playing the hero and never making any difference in the world. His cup had simply run over, what else could it be?  
He sensed someone approaching and a shadow draped across his table. Sonic, figuring Orlando had returned to bug him again, prepared to unleash the full force of his anger on the kid.  
"_I told you to-_"  
But it wasn't Orlando who approached, it was a stranger, and Sonic was struck dumb by the figure standing above him. A breathtakingly attractive anteater girl with a not-entirely-innocent smirk. Dark brown fur, almost black, with a lashing of blonde in her fringe. The rest of her hair was just below shoulder length. Not anyone he had seen around town; in fact, it was rare that he ever saw anyone proportioned so well, even in the boundless depth of his imagination, it was almost unnatural. She smiled sweetly and cocked her head at him, and even his depression was momentarily forgotten.  
"Do you mind if I sit here?" she asked softly.  
Sonic tore his eyes from her long enough to have a look around at the three completely empty tables in the cafe, then looked back at her, this divine beauty who was requesting permission to share his table as though it were the only space available.  
"Uhh... sure," he stammered, then cleared his throat and looked embarrasedly down at his coffee as she sat down across from him.  
About thirty seconds passed in silence, and he looked back up at her. She was staring at him, just sitting quietly and staring at his face. It would be unspeakably rude, were she not so attractive, and Sonic hated the hot flush that he felt creeping onto his face. _Say something, you stupid hedgehog, don't just sit there looking at her like she's an artwork in a museum._  
"The coffee here is terrible," he said.  
The anteater smiled, didn't blink. "I don't drink coffee."  
"So, uh, what's your name?"  
The stranger seemed both surprised and entertained by the question, and it was around this time that Sonic considered that the situation took its final flaming plunge from the flattering to the frighteningly bizarre.  
"Kardot... Mori," she said slowly, mapping his reaction with her haunting perfect eyes.  
"I'm Sonic."  
"Yes, I know."  
There was another moment of uncomfortable silence, after which Sonic snorted laughter and shook his head in bewilderment.  
"I'm sorry, do we know each other?"  
A smile that went beyond the realm of mischevious crept onto Kardot's face, as though she knew some immense and life-changing secret that granted her powerful advantages over him. Even considering the beauty of the face that held it, this wasn't a smile that Sonic was comfortable with.  
"I may never completely get used to this," she said, "You really don't recognise me at all, do you? These worlds are utterly different, and yet you seem to be the keystone, the skewer that holds it all together. The Tower and the Hedgehog."  
"I'm sorry, I really don't know what you're talking about," Sonic admitted.  
Kardot rose from her seat and moved around behind him. Sonic was nervous and now a little afraid. The stranger did seem a little familiar to him, in a way, but not in the way that a person remembers people from their past. It was more like a memory of a distant dream.  
"You're tense, babe," she said, and put her hands on his shoulders from behind. As she began to softly massage his neck muscles, he saw her hands and became more unnerved. Her nails were long and sharp like talons, and one of her fingers was completely missing. The stump sparked, and he flinched. Was this a _robot_?  
"You know nothing about Konya, either, I suppose?" she probed, "Of Talon, I mean? Or the biotic wars? Leviathan ring any bells? Zephyer? Knuckles?"  
"Knux-" Sonic stammered.  
"Aha, a hit? Did I just sink your battleship, Sonic? You want to know something interesting? You'd probably have a hard time believing it, but I find it interesting nonetheless, the possibilities. In another world, I mean, another reality, you and I could have been friends. We could have been married, even. Would you like that? We could work together. We could even be the bitterest of enemies, Sonic, and you wouldn't... even... know."  
"You're freaking me out, here."  
Kardot leaned down to whisper in Sonic's ear.  
"Dying _hurts_, Sonic," she said, "And killing you might be little consolation for me, especially since it's Knuckles who I despise, but if it's the only little revenge I get then so be it."  
Sonic, hopelessly lost by the conversation, had only a second for his reflexes to register that something very bad was about to happen, and if he didn't move immediately he was going to die. Luckily, he was Sonic the Hedgehog, and a second was more time than he needed.  
Sonic threw himself to the ground just as the wall of the cafe collapsed upon itself, and something massive ripped through the building like it was made of paper. The ceiling was gone, tiles raining down. The walls cracked and then burst as the powerful object tore down the entire construction like a wrecking ball, which was at first what Sonic thought it actually was. But when the object came to rest, he saw the faded word _DESOLATION_ painted in white lettering upon it, felt the cool water pooling around him, and knew that it was the water tower that had stood above the central plaza of the town. The water tower had fallen onto the cafe.  
He stood and looked to where it had once stood, through the new hole in the side of what remained of the building. The strangest thing was that, considering where the tower had once stood, it would almost have to have been _thrown_ at the cafe.  
The other shoe didn't drop all the way until something came down from above and shoved him back inside the building with an unnatural strength.  
He looked up to see Zero Tolerance, using his mechanical claw-arms as stilts, towering above him.  
"_Sonic!_" he hissed, cackling, "I forgot to yell 'catch'!"  
"_You almost hit me with that thing!_" Kardot screamed, but Sonic took little notice of her.  
"Leave me alone, Zero, I'm not going to fight you anymore," Sonic said, "I'm done, do you understand? I've given up, just do what you want."  
"Given up? _Given up?_ Is this the same Sonic I know?" Zero demanded, "Not that simple, I'm afraid, my old friend. We've got some _business_ to take care of first, remember? This isn't over until _you're_ over!"  
Zero dropped to his feet and picked Sonic up in one of his claws, then threw the hedgehog to the ground again. "Fight me, Sonic, you coward, stand and _fight me!_"  
"_Why?_" Sonic screamed, "_What did I ever do to you? I don't know you, Zero, I've never had any contact with you and I've never done anything to hurt you, don't you understand that you idiot? You've got the wrong-_"  
Zero picked him up again, twirled him in the air and threw him across the street. Sonic landed in a spindash and rolled until he hit a wall. Zero was already trundling toward him again.  
Sonic had lost the will to fight for justice, but not the instinct to fight for his own survival. When he saw Zero, insane with anger and excitement, come out of the shadows and debris to take the fight into the open, Sonic ran to clash with the other hedgehog, his speed an advantage. Before his opponent could predict his movements, he kicked Zero in the head and chest, and grappled with him. Zero cried out and snapped at Sonic with his mechanical claws, finally succeeding in grabbing him and throwing him away again.  
Zero wanted to keep Sonic at a distance, this was how he always fought. Sonic knew his tactics by now, they were as simple and predictable as those of a machine. Zero would keep his distance and attack with ranged weaponry. Just as expected, the moment he hit the ground again (on his feet, this time), Sonic heard the discharge of an automatic weapon, and poured on the speed to evade Zero's bullets. The black and armoured hedgehog saw Sonic coming at him again, and promptly turned on his jets to rocketed out of reach.  
Sonic dug his heels into the ground and searched the sky for his enemy. "You wanted me to fight you!" he yelled, "Do you want a fair fight or a farce? Come down!"  
"_All I want is for you to die!_" Zero shrieked, and roared down from his hiding place in front of the sun to tackle Sonic head-on. The blue hedgehog was knocked hard, but rolled onto his feet again, just as Zero threw some kind of force grenade at him that detonated and knocked him another ten feet backward.  
This time, he was left in considerable pain when he landed. He doubted that the grenade had broken any bones or burned him in any way, but it wouldn't do him too well to be hit with too many of those.  
Zero was laughing. "Get up, Sonic!"  
And Sonic did, with a grunt. Before he was even on his feet again, Zero was shooting some kind of bladed discs at him from a gun attached to his arm. Sonic dodged them all with some difficulty and a fair dose of luck. Then Zero was at him with the machine gun again, two barrels roaring.  
Sonic took a chance at getting close to Zero again, back to a range where he could reclaim his advantage. Still aching and running low on stamina, he managed to dodge two waves of bullets and get close enough to attack Zero hedgehog-to-hedgehog. But before he had a chance to launch a physical attack, he almost collided with Espio and Niles, who had seemingly appeared out of nowhere.  
Yelling and skidding to a halt to avoid hurting his friends, Sonic fell over backwards and landed on his backside. Zero held Espio and Niles above his head, one in each mechanical claw, and panted.  
"Sonic!" Espio cried, "Don't let him get to you!"  
"And here we see Sonic's greatest weakness, exposed and naked!" Zero announced, "He slices, he dices, he runs and he spins, but put the knife to his friends and he turns to quivering jelly! How many times have we been here, Sonic? How many times?"  
"Too many, you disgusting freak," Sonic spat.  
"Sticks and stones!" Zero cackled, "Now do you see why you can never beat me? I am the superior fighting machine, Sonic, and you're just a weak biological insect, trapped by your own emotions. I know that pain, insect, and that's why it's me who will pull the trigger at the end of your life, be it today or not. Because _I know how to get to you_."  
Sonic could almost have believed it was Cinos giving this speech, his evil twin standing there and telling him about how it was his sympathy for others that made him weak, and how the desire to protect was brittle under the power to destroy. His resolve was weakened once again, and he clenched his fists in anguish.  
"_No!_"  
"Yes!" Zero shrieked, and started shooting at him again. Sonic jumped and leaped and twisted like a circus performer as the bullets thudded and pinged around him. The black hedgehog threw another grenade, but Sonic caught it in mid-air and it didn't explode. He fell to his knees again, panting and gasping.  
"How the mighty have fallen," Zero said, "The hero is down for the count, ripe for the picking."  
"Oh dear," Niles moaned from his wavering perch, grappled by Zero's supplementary limb. Espio, held by the other, shouted at his fallen friend.  
"Don't worry about us, Sonic, you can take him! Come on! Snap out of it!"  
Zero sarcastically mimicked the chameleon, putting on a high-pitched voice and clapping his hands together. "Oh yes, Sonic, don't give up! Don't give up!"  
"Okay, Zero," Sonic panted, "Okay. Cut me a deal. You set the terms, I'll give you anything you want. Okay? Anything you want. There must be _something_ you want besides my death."  
Zero's grin faded and he seemed to think about it for a moment. Sonic's spirits lifted as the black hedgehog seemed to give in to reason.  
"Okay, Sonic, here's the deal. You give me my old life back, make me whole again, and we'll call it even." He scowled. "Oh, wait a second... that's right, you _can't do_ that! _Nobody_ can! It's beyond even your power to change."  
Sonic buried his head in his hands and sobbed. "I don't... know what... you're _talking about!_"  
The point of something sharp jabbed his chin and he lifted his head again. He almost didn't believe what he saw, and fell over backwards, crying out.  
Axel Gear stood before him, only his grinning muzzle visible from within his violet medieval armour, and he held out his sword as though inviting him to duel. Axel, the wisecracking brother and nemesis of a rocket knight named Sparkster, had raided Knothole several years ago while trying to track down his sibling. Sonic still wore a scar on his upper thigh where Axel's blade had slashed him.  
Beside Axel stood Shred, the velociraptor who had once taunted and terrorised Sonic and a few others, all of whom had been kidnapped by a powerful otherworldly being and forced to undertake difficult tests of agility and cognition. Shred was the only creature Sonic had ever encountered who was able to run faster than he could.  
And then there was Kardot, whose animosity toward him was a complete mystery, and in that way she was very similar to Zero himself.  
"No, Sonic," Zero said from behind the three rogues, "The only thing I want from you is to die and to have a very cheap funeral. My colleagues all agree."  
"What is this?" Sonic asked, "_This Is Your Life_?"  
"Nothing of the sort," Zero replied, "It's more like _This Is Your Death_. So let's get on with the show."  
Sonic picked himself up and examined the situation. Severely outnumbered, and running was not an option, despite having always been taught that these are the situations from which it is wise to run.  
"I _will_ kill them, Sonic," Zero reminded him, referring to his captive friends.  
Sonic carefully examined each of the faces of the villains who had cornered him. Each was sure that he was a dead hedgehog walking, and each was just about sadistic enough to make it as painful as possible for him.  
There was a saying that Sally had used once, one of her rules of tactics, and that was that _you should never overlook the elephant in the living room_. Meaning, don't be so caught up with the difficulty of a task that you miss the most obvious solution. Sonic had been trying so hard to figure out how he was going to fight four fully-armed supervillains at once that he forgot that he was still holding the force grenade that Zero had thrown at him and that he had caught.  
"Hey Zero, batter up!" he exclaimed, and hurled the object at Zero's chest.  
"What-" Zero began, but the object detonated on his armour and threw him off his feet. Even better than Sonic had expected, the other three enemies were also blown over by the explosion, and running almost purely on instinct, Sonic leaped toward the ringleader of this operation and landed on Zero's prostrate metal-clad body.  
"_Get off me!_" the black hedgehog screamed.  
"Let go of my friends," Sonic replied, but even as he said this he realised that Espio and Niles had already been relinquished in the confusion.  
"_Run!_" Sonic shouted at them, "Run towards shelter!"  
They didn't need to be told twice. Niles was already halfway across town before Sonic finished speaking, and Espio was scrambling toward the nearest (and most secure) building he could see. Sonic didn't have a chance to follow, as Zero grabbed him around the waist with one of his mechanical claw-arms.  
"I'll rip you _apart!_" Zero growled, and the other claw attached itself with some force to Sonic's face. Sonic managed a spindash, tangling the claw-arms together and forcing his release, but Zero was already firing at him with every projectile weapon he had on hand. Sonic hit the ground running, weaving and jumping to avoid being shot full of holes.  
He escaped Zero's range and took to fleeing the scene, weaving behind buildings and down alleys until he couldn't hear the gunshots anymore. But as he ducked behind an old wood mill, something heavier and moving even faster than he was hit him from behind and threw him down into the dust.

XXIV

"Tasty morsel," hissed a guttural and reptillian voice from above, "Heh... heheh... heheheh..."  
The heavy weight shifted and removed itself, allowing Sonic to pick himself up with a groan.  
Shred the Raptor paced back and forth in front of the wood mill that cast its shadow over the both of them, showing all of his dozens of teeth in a wide, sharp grin.  
"Shouldn't you be in a zoo, somewhere?" Sonic asked, "I think you're late for the four o'clock feeding."  
"I've got my four o'clock feeding right _here_!" Shred roared and pounced, his deadly six-inch-long toe-claw kicking out for Sonic's gut.  
Sonic ducked out of the way, but just in time. He heard the claw whiz past his ear and the loud click of Shred's gnashing teeth. Shred was a very dangerous opponent to engage in melee combat, but right now Sonic had little say in the matter. He quickly ran toward a large wood pile that stood against the wall of the mill. Shred came galloping after, and with his uncanny predatory speed he quickly regained his lead and lowered his head to pounce again. Sonic couldn't see his persuer behind him, but knew that if Shred pounced again, he'd open Sonic like a packet of crisps.  
Sonic grabbed for anything he could use as a weapon, and found a woodaxe in relatively decent condition. He swung it around and caught the side of Shred's head with the heavy and blunt back of the axe, just as the raptor was rearing up. Shred yelped, and his glass eye flew through the air to land in the grass somewhere, but the thick-skinned and muscular reptile was barely hurt. He reared up again, gnashing, and Sonic pounced at him instead, ramming the handle of the axe crossways between Shred's teeth. He wrestled with the raptor head-to-head, always wary of that flicking claw, but Shred was much stronger and managed a powerful swing that threw Sonic and his axe back into the woodpile.  
Sonic landed hard, but managed quickly to reclaim his makeshift weapon and scramble to the top of the woodpile. Shred, running to catch his meal, skidded to a halt at the base of the pile and looked up at Sonic.  
"What are you doing up there?" the raptor demanded.  
"Staying away from _you_," Sonic replied. He knew that one of Shred's tactical weaknesses was that he lacked the ability to climb. The velociraptor paced back and forth at the base of the pile, keeping his one good eye on Sonic at its peak.  
"You can't stay up there forever, delicious," he warned, "Heh... heheh... Yer trapped."  
"We'll see about that," Sonic replied, "Catch." He threw a chunk of wood that glocked the raptor on the top of the head. The lizard hissed in response, and gnashed his teeth as though he expected them to leap out of his jaw and chew Sonic up by themselves.  
Sonic was so busy taunting Shred that he barely noticed when Axel Gear landed on top of the woodpile behind him. He heard and smelled the rocket knight's jets, and tried to hide the fact that this ambush situation frightened him.  
"Hey," Axel said, and unsheathed his sword with a metallic scrape.  
"Hey," Sonic replied.  
"I never liked you a whole lot."  
"That's a pity." Sonic took one step back, mindful that too many would see him sliding down the woodpile into Shred's open jaws.  
"You remind me too much of my brother." Axel advanced a step.  
"And how is Sparkster?"  
Axel smirked. "Disgustingly healthy."  
"Good to hear."  
Sonic brandished his axe as a sword. Axel almost half-heartedly swung his own weapon and sliced the handle off an inch above where Sonic held it. Sonic nodded understanding and threw the small chunk of wood he still held, which bounced harmlessly off Axel's armour.  
"Nice try, though." the opossum said.  
Sonic took another step back, and stole a quick glimspe at the ground. Shred was sitting back on his haunches, drooling and watching the proceedings.  
"So why are you hanging around a loser like Zero Tolerance?" Sonic asked.  
Axel smiled. "You could say we share an interest."  
"So I see." Sonic took another step back, but he was as close to the edge now as he could get. "And what, you got together and started up the Vengeance Appreciation Club?"  
"More fun than knitting," Axel replied, and seeing that Sonic was pushed to his limit, he thrusted with his sword. Sonic dodged the attack, but almost overbalanced. In a stunning display of accuracy, Axel slashed back and opened another wound on Sonic's upper thigh - right above the scar that the same person had given him years prior.  
"Thought we oughta start again where we left off last time," Axel said, and laughed. When Sonic had regained his composure, the rocket knight truly began to attack, thrusting, slashing and parrying against the completely unarmed hedgehog, aiming for a kill shot. It didn't seem really to be in the spirit of fencing.  
Sonic dodged as best he could in the tiny space he had, and just as things looked bleak, Axel made his first and last mistake. He went for a hard thrust forward, too confident that he could skewer the cornered hedgehog through the gut, and Sonic leaped all the way over the rocket knight, landing behind him and kicking him in the back. Axel shrieked as his momentum sent him over the side of the woodpile, and he landed square on top of Shred, who had his jaws open for the wrong victim and got only a mouthful of stainless steel. Sonic fled before his two enemies could reassert themselves.

XXV

Sonic found Espio and Niles hiding together in a barn on the other side of town, and they rested there only after making sure that nobody had seen them.  
"Oh thank goodness!" Niles exclaimed, "Dear hedgehog, we'd thought you'd abandoned us for sure!"  
"_He_ thought you'd abandoned us," Espio clarified, "Welcome back to the land of the living, Sonic."  
Sonic was out of breath but at least he was on his feet again. He thumped his forehead softly with the heel of his hand and sighed.  
"It feels like I'm missing an enzyme," he said, "The one that makes me want to get up in the mornings. I'm on a high now, but I feel like throwing in the towel so badly. I mean, what do I do in this world that even matters?"  
"It's this place," Espio said, "This town is like a prison for the mind. Any feelings of inadequacy you have are thrown into overdrive. I think Cinos said something to you that hit a nerve, and coming here just made it take over. And it all has something to do with that Rune."  
"Of course," Sonic replied. All the pieces came together for him in his mind. "And that means it's still here somewhere, still affecting us."  
"I do believe we have more pressing issues to be concerned about," Niles said, "Such as, and this is just an example, not being murdered by the psychotic inhabitants of this insane town."  
"Zero has stirred into a frenzy some old enemies of mine," Sonic explained, "None of them can exactly be considered an arch-nemesis, and I don't think any of them are too interested in harming me except for the sheer sport of it. They're excited to be out of that little prison, I represent the kind of mentality they hate so much, and they outnumber me four to one. As far as I can tell, the only really dangerous one is Zero. He wants me dead so bad, for some reason, that he's willing to follow me all the way around the world just to do me in. If we can deal with Zero, I have a feeling the others will leave us alone."  
"And how, pray tell, do we do that?"  
Sonic sighed and shook his head. "I have to face him. He has some kind of score to settle with me, and he won't stop until he thinks it's settled. I don't want to kill the guy, but... if that really is the only way, if he's determined that it'll be him or me... then I guess that's the way things will have to happen."  
"And if he wins?" Espio asked, "What if you fight him and you lose?"  
Sonic shrugged. "Today I came to the conclusion that evil always wins. It seems like it's the only logical outcome. So I just have to hope that logic takes a holiday."  
"Oh, brilliant," Niles said, throwing his arms into the air. "Let us all put our lives in the hands of faith, then."  
"Faith is what's kept me alive this long," Sonic said, and rose to his feet. "So wish me luck."

XXVI

"That was _humiliating_!" Axel yelled, kicking a wall, "That was the worst defeat I've seen since my hack brother brought down the Lizard King!"  
Kardot pricked up her ears. "Lizard King?"  
"Detrious Kimodo," Axel explained, "Lord of Konamia. I was his chief of assassins." He grinned proudly.  
"Hmh." Kardot flicked her hair. "Another link between our worlds. I knew a Lizard King. Leviathan. He had a Final Solution for Mobius." Her voice became distant, as though she were talking to herself. "I never did get to see whether that panned out."  
"I _am_ the Lizard King!" Shred roared, and clicked his teeth together as he mauled air.  
All at once, the doors at the entrance to the town hall were ripped off their hinges and crashed to the ground. Zero Tolerance stepped through, his hands fisted at his sides.  
"Someone's peeved," Axel whispered.  
Zero's face was contorted into a scowl and he looked back and forth between the others who stood before him.  
"Four of us," he growled, "Why can't we catch him? Why can't we kill him? _Why won't he die?_"  
"Cool your jets," Axel told him, "It's like I said before. The hedgehog... he won't be beat, he's like the common cold. There's no cure. I don't know about the rest of you guys, but I'm heading west. Maybe I'll get lucky and I'll find another genocidal dictator who might take me under his wing. They seem to be a dime a dozen in this world."  
"No!" Zero snarled, "You have to help me with _Sonic_."  
"You're obsessed, babe," Kardot said, rolling her eyes.  
Zero was about to throw back a retort, but Rustbucket entered the chamber and stood between them.  
"**ARE YOU ALL BEING EVIL?**" the robot asked.  
"Yes," they all replied in unison.  
"**EXXXXXXXXCELLENT!**"  
Rustbucket turned and walked back to wherever he had come from.  
"Excuse me for a minute," Axel said, and he began to follow the robot, unsheathing his sword as he went.  
"Wait." Zero grabbed him with a mechanical claw and dragged him backward.  
"Hey, what?" the opossum demanded, "It's for the best, trust me!"  
"Leave us," Zero said, "If you would leave, then leave. It doesn't matter. By the end of the day there won't be enough of Sonic left to fill a bottle. He glanced at the pair of boots that stood near the hall entrance (and which presumably still contained The Commando's feet, although nobody had checked) and the few ashes which hadn't blown away through the course of the day.

XXVII

The plan and purpose of Rustbucket was truly unclear. Had he fried a curcuit and gone insane, or was he actually programmed to snap at some point, murder his colleagues, free the villains he had collected over the months and years, and then stomp around doing little of anything? Rustbucket had been built by Dr Robotnik during some brief (and purpose unknown) liason in this town, and so Zero considered the answer most likely to be the latter. It was just about the most perfect example of the professor's sociopathic sense of humour that he could imagine. It was very fundamentally like him to make such a cosmic joke out of the concept of good and evil, to raise people's hopes and smash them in such a way, to deliberately betray people, not for apathy or personal gain, but for the intrinsic enjoyment of betraying people.  
Zero, after all, knew the Doctor very well. And although Rustbucket's purpose was to some extent a mystery, it was a lucky turn that he should be here at all. And an interesting and somewhat ironic turn of events, that this afterthought of Robotnik's career, this ridiculous scrappy thing that was without a doubt the least dangerous assassin he had ever built and so inferior that he might even have forgotten having built it at all, was about to become the instrument of Sonic the Hedgehog's final demise.  
The robot, his original purpose evidently exhausted, took to merely wandering around the place with that ridiculous painted smiley-face and occasionally checking to make sure that evil people were being appropriately evil and not slacking off from their evilness. He would presumably do this until he stopped functioning one way or the other. He was clearly not a complex learning machine, so had no understanding of boredom. Free of his orders, he would continue passing the time with triviality until such time as somebody gave him something else to aspire to.  
He stood completely motionless in the corridors (a bizarre place for anyone to stand for any reason, a nowhere-place, like someone who, in the process of doing something or going somewhere, merely stopped, set down his business, and stood), and did not so much as twitch when Zero came looking for him.  
"**GREETINGS,**" he said, looking eerily like some theme park mascot. It was easy to imagine him relaying a prerecorded message about ticket prices and kids discounts.  
"Rustbucket," Zero said, and smiled. The robot said nothing, and smiled back, although technically he had no choice.  
Zero approached the robot and stood face to face with its caricature expression. It was impossible to tell where the robot's visual sensors were located, for surely this painted bucket was only a way of personifying what was otherwise a walking heap of junk.  
"The town is ours," Zero said, "From border to border, every scrap of it, under our control."  
"**INDEED! JOLLY GOOD PIP PIP AND ALL THAT ROT!**"  
"But really... the town is _yours_, wouldn't you say?" Zero smiled as he walked around behind Rustbucket and placed a rubber-gloved hand on his shoulder. "After all, it was _your_ scheme that put all of this together. You are the mastermind here, and we tremble beneath your evil prowess."  
"**YOUR ASSERTION IS ACCURATE,**" Rustbucket announced, "**LOGIC DEFINITION SYSTEMS HAVE ATTRIBUTED THE FOLLOWING RATING TO YOUR THEORY: SOUND. SYSTEMS HAVE CALCULATED THAT THE FRUIT OR VEGETABLE THAT BEST REPRESENTS YOU IS: BANANA. YOUR LUCKY NUMBER IS FIVE.**"  
"I have had the pleasure of working with many criminal geniuses," Zero continued, "But, might I say, you are the greatest of them."  
"**YES YOU MIGHT SAY THAT!**"  
"I wonder, though, if you might be setting your goals a little low."  
For the first time, Rustbucket moved. His head swivelled about ten degrees to the left.  
"**FURTHER EXPLANATION IS REQUIRED,**" he said.  
"I mean that you have the town in your grasp," Zero replied, "But why not have... the world?"  
"**WHY NOT INDEED, I WILL PONDER THIS. PONDERANCE COMPLETE! THE ANSWER IS SEVENTEEN.**"  
"You could have it all if you wanted it. Everything. Mobius could be yours. You would bring about not only the Day of the Supervillains, but the _Age_ of the Supervillains."  
Rustbucket moved his head again. "**THAT WOULD BE A VERY EVIL THING TO DO,**" he reported.  
"It would."  
"**THEN IT WILL BE DONE!**"  
"But there is a problem."  
"**A PROBLEM?**"  
"A problem."  
"**THAT IS INDEED A PROBLEM. I WILL PONDER THIS PROBLEM.**"  
Zero sighed. "The problem, Rustbucket, is a superhero problem."  
Rustbucket let out a digital squeal that almost forced Zero to block his ears. After it ended, he realised that it must have been some kind of laugh.  
"**THE JUSTICE BRIGADE HAS BEEN ELIMINATED,**" Rustbucket said, "**I SAW TO THEIR DELETION PERSONALLY.**"  
"Oh no, not them," Zero replied, "There is another one. He just arrived, as a matter of fact. His name is Sonic."  
"SONIC!" Rustbucket emitted that horrible squeal-laugh again. "**I HAVE ATTRIBUTED THE FOLLOWING RATING TO THE NAME 'SONIC': RIDICULOUS!**"  
"Indeed. But he is a problem nevertheless."  
"**A SOLUTION TO THIS PROBLEM REQUIRES FORTHWITH COMPUTATION.**"  
"The solution is simple," Zero announced. There was an empty beer can nearby, lying discarded on the ground. He pointed to it, and the robot's bucket-head swivelled to look.  
"That can represents Sonic."  
"**YOU MAKE AN INTERESTING POINT,**" Rustbucket replied.  
And this," Zero said, "Is what we do."  
He stood back, put his arm out in front of him, and pressed a button on the side of it. Some kind of small gun emerged from a compartment and lauched a small missile at the can. There was an explosion, and after the smoke cleared, the ground was blackened and very little remained of the can.  
"**I BELIEVE I UNDERSTAND,**" Rustbucket said, "**IF THE METAL LIQUID-HOLDING OBJECT REPRESENTS SONIC, THEN IT WOULD APPEAR THAT YOU ARE INSINUATING OUR SOLUTION LIES IN THE MURDER OF THIS PARTICULAR INDIVIDUAL BY WAY OF EXTREME FORCE.**"  
"Now you're catching on," Zero said, and smiled, "Sonic must die. At any cost, Sonic must _die_."

XXVIII

Orlando Winterburn sat completely entranced with his work, the sketch pad laid out in front of him, and with a practiced speed he transcribed the events unfolding in the town of Desolation.

"The hero braced himself for the final confrontation with the forces of evil. Sonic the Hedgehog, brave defender of the innocent and the helpless, stood alone in the street and awaited his showdown with those who threatened to destroy all that was just and good. The tyrants who had callously murdered the Justice Brigade - and Rustbucket, who had betrayed them - strove to take control of the town and turn it into the villainy capital of the world. Only Sonic stood between them and their goal. In the name of liberty, he knew that he must succeed.  
The hedgehog stood taller than anyone else in town, with great flowing locks of red hair and eyes as deep blue as the ocean. His muscles rippled like waves under the leather jacket he made himself with the skin of wild bulls he had killed with his own bare hands.  
"He had travelled far to reach this point, both in terms of distance and of spiritual enlightenment. Now he was primed and ready for action. Nobody was getting past him this day. It would end here.  
"Zero Tolerance, the warrior demon from the south who had persued Sonic so far in the name of vengeance, arrived and stood twenty feet ahead of his nemesis. Zero's eyes glowed as red as the fires of the underworld from whence he came. His two tongues darted in and out of the black pit of his smoking maw. His biomechanical battle-suit screeched and clanged, two nightmarish tentacles rising from his back like snakes rearing for attack.  
"This was the endgame, and both adversaries knew it. Only one would be getting out alive."

Orlando was known for some degree of creative liberty in his details, but the thrust of the story was the same.

XXIX

"Are you ready to taste my steel, Sonic?" Zero shouted from one end of the road.  
Sonic, facing his adversary, could see Zero standing like an asterisk twenty feet ahead, legs and arms spread with his mechanical claws rising above his shoulders.  
"This ends today!" Sonic shouted back.  
Zero laughed. "I know it does! I'm as sick of this as you are! It's time to put this to rest once and for all! It's not going to be very pleasant for you though, I'm afraid. I'm done playing!"  
"I don't want to hurt anyone," Sonic said.  
"Well, that makes one of us, Sonic. You're going to hurt plenty."  
"_Sonic, look out!_"  
This warning came from Orlando, and Sonic let his reflexes rule him and leaped to the side without a second thought. Before he even hit the ground, an explosion ripped through the air that might have injured Sonic's ears if he had been standing any closer to its source. With it came the sound of windows shattering all around, and a bright light that hurt his eyes as though he had glanced at the sun. It lasted only a moment, but the sound reverberated for a second longer in the inside of Sonic's head as well as throughout the town.  
Sonic was disoriented and startled, and did not land on his feet as he otherwise would have, but fell into the dust. From this vantage point he could see something that looked like a primary school representation of a robot trundling toward him, and found it beyond difficult to get his head around the idea that that uncanny attack had somehow come from this walking garbage can. It was Rustbucket, and somehow Zero had bent the robot to his cause.  
"**SONIC THE HEDGEHOG!**" Rustbucket exclaimed, "**YOU HAVE BEEN TARGETED FOR DESTRUCTION!**"  
"Oh _why me_?" Sonic shrieked, "Why can't everybody find someone else to target for destruction?"  
"**THE AGE OF THE SUPERVILLAINS WILL NOT BE DENIED! YOU HAVE NO CHANCE TO SURVIVE MAKE YOUR TIME!**"  
Sonic rolled out of the way just in time to avoid being skewered by Zero's mechanical claw, as it plowed into the ground with a bladed attachment glistening in the sun. Zero snarled like a wounded beast and unholstered one of his guns.  
"Your speed won't save you for long, Sonic, you have to slow down some time. You're made of meat, and meat gets tired."  
"So are you, and I bet your meat gets tired before mine!" Sonic replied, but this seemed to enrage Zero even more, and he thrust out violently with both of his mechanical claws, as well as firing his gun in a highly random spray of bullets. Sonic found this to be ironically more difficult to avoid than an aimed shot, but didn't wish to reveal to Zero his trouble. Instead he retreated from the storm of projectiles, leaving Zero in his dust.  
"_Come back here!_" Zero screamed, and shot a small rocket at his enemy. It struck the ground just ahead of Sonic and blew the hedgehog backwards. Sonic was momentarily disoriented, but knew he had to keep his head or Zero might blow it off.  
"This is ridiculous, Zero!" he exclaimed, "Can't you see how stupid this is?"  
Zero shouted a reply, but Sonic didn't hear it properly. Instead he was forced to narrowly dodge another loud energy blast from Rustbucket, feeling the heat of it singe his fur. _I'd better remember to keep an eye on both of them_, he thought, _or else it's char grilled hedgehog on the menu tonight._  
When the light faded, he saw Zero already trundling toward him, using those mechanical claws as stilts to enhance his stride. He reached Sonic in no time, two guns already blazing. Sonic ran under the hail of bullets and attacked his stilts, knocking the black hedgehog over with a string of loud curses.  
"**SYSTEMS UNSTABLE,**" Rustbucket reported, his voice falling into a lower register than usual, but Sonic paid no attention to what the insane robot was saying. Much more important to focus on dodging those energy blasts.  
He looked over his shoulder and saw that the residents of Desolation were coming out of their homes to watch the epic battle. Clusters of people were gathering around the ruins of the town square, the hall, the saloons, the remains of the cafe where the water tower lay on its side and turned much of the main street into mud. The sheriff had been freed and stood with the rest of them, and Sonic saw several other vaguely familiar individuals in the crowd, including Espio and Niles, and Orlando Winterburn who frantically transcribed the unfolding events into his sketch book. A steadily increasing number of people were rhythmically clapping in the way that they did when the Justice Brigade had fought. They were cheering him on. Sonic was their hero, now.  
And what was more, many of them were smiling. Such a simple thing that one ordinarily might not even notice, but here in Desolation it made a difference. Had he seen so much as a single smile since he had been here? Zero's insane grin and Rustbucket's immovable painted-on expression didn't count. How long had it even been since these people _had_ smiled?  
The clapping was more distinguished, now, and it lost its monotonous quality. It was uplifting; genuine.  
Rustbucket let loose another of his devestating blasts, and a nearby building burst into flames. A whole section of the wall disintegrated where the beam had struck it, and Sonic hoped that nobody was stuck inside. Looking over the faces of all of these hope-filled innocents, he realised that he should attempt to lead the villains away from the town, or else collateral damage would be inevitable.  
One of Zero's claws grasped him around the waist and threw him haphazardly like a rag doll. He hit the ground hard and struggled to his feet. Zero was already hurrying in persuit.  
"If you want to kill me, you'll have to catch me!" Sonic shouted, and he turned on his heels and sprinted out into the desert. He heard his own breath in his throat and his heart thudding in his chest almost in sync with the clapping of the crowd that faded behind him as he ran. Then it was drowned out by the sound of Zero's rockets as his enemy took the bait and persued him.  
The only problem with the open desert was that there would be nothing between himself and Zero's weapons, should he want to take cover. And it would be almost impossible to escape the battle if he found he was losing. This really would be the end for one of them.  
If not for both of them.  
Sonic slowed, intending to turn around to face his attacker, but Zero was closer than he expected and the armoured hedgehog spear-tackled him in midair and plowed him into the ground like a football.  
Zero landed ahead of him and turned, hurling one of his force grenades. Sonic slapped it away, and it detonated in the dirt at a safe distance.  
"Last chance to give up this nonsense, Zero. Don't make the mistake of thinking I'm too soft to kill you, because I will. If you leave me no other choice, I will."  
"You'll never get the opportunity," Zero spat, "I'll fight you until you wear down, and then I'll rend you limb from limb while everbody watches. I've waited for this for so long. So long."  
And Sonic could see that he was telling the truth. He was smiling in premature success, so sure of the outcome of this fight that he could already see his victory playing out before his eyes. The end was in sight, and it was like Christmas morning for Zero Tolerance.  
Sonic figured that his certainty was probably due in part to an inability to conceive of another defeat. For Zero, it might have seemed that such an outcome would tear his mind apart.  
And so, out here in the desert, Sonic and Zero clashed again. Leaping, kicking, running and shooting, the adversaries wrestled in the dirt, all flailing limbs, mechanical claws and zipping bullets.  
Sonic was again thrown to the ground, and looked up in time to see that Rustbucket had persued them into the desert, waddling in some atrocious excuse for a run.  
"**RESISTING ARREST IS A FELONY OFFENSE PUNISHABLE BY MEANS OF STRAWBERRY CHEESECAKE SEVEN DOLLARS FIFTY!**" the robot exclaimed, and unleashed another massive energy blast before screeching, "**FUEL CELLS OPERATING AT SEVENTY PERCENT CAPACITY AND DROPPING, THIS IS A LEVEL _SEVEN_ WARNING! _SEVEN!_ HEAT LEVELS CRITICAL, MONKEY LIVES IN TREE.**"  
"Die, Sonic," Zero rasped, and resumed his onslaught.  
They clashed again, in another brutal, almost animalistic round of combat. Every so often Zero would land a fairly decent wound on his enemy, and for the first time Sonic began to genuinely worry that the black hedgehog would tear him to pieces before he could deal a serious blow. That armour, after all, gave Zero some significant protection, and this wasn't another of those occasions when Sonic could use the environment against his enemy. This was hedgehog against hedgehog, and Zero was packing more heat.  
Zero clamped onto Sonic's head with one of his claw-arms, and spun him about violently in the air. Sonic had to grip the claw as tightly as he could with all of his limbs, afraid that his neck would break. At last Zero threw him to the ground, and Sonic had to roll quickly to dodge the other claw, which came stabbing down like an attacking viper. He used the momentum to spin-dash at Zero's feet, toppling the black hedgehog like a bowling pin. Zero, however, quickly caught himself using those claw-arms (_curse_ those wretched things!) and followed Sonic with another rain of bullets.  
"**FUEL CELLS OPERATING AT FORTY-THREE PERCENT CAPACITY AND DROPPING,**" Rustbucket warned, "**THIS IS A LEVEL _SEVEN_ WARNING!**" He blasted again, and this time Sonic was almost hit. He felt a scorching, unbearable heat for a moment. Any closer and he might have been done some damage.  
He rolled onto his back and looked up at Zero, standing sentinel over him with a hungry smile and his rubber-gloved hands being drawn into fists again and again.  
"What are you going to do once I'm dead, Zero?" Sonic snapped, "What are you going to do when your life's quest is over?"  
"Can't say I'm exactly sure," Zero replied, "I haven't really thought about it. All I know is that your death is the only release I know. Your _death_ will let me _live_. Maybe I can even gain some control over this new mind of mine. But not while you're alive, Sonic, not while you're still walking around."  
He fired a missile at Sonic, who shot onto his feet and dodged backward. The explosion rained dirt and dust on them both.  
"I'm stronger than you, Sonic."  
"I'm faster."  
"I'm better armed."  
"You'll run out of ammo soon."  
"Then I'll beat you to death."  
Sonic leaped at Zero, grappling onto the chest plate of his armour, and used one hand to rip the helmet off his opponent's head. Zero's snarling face emerged unobscured, and Sonic caught a good look at the pink scar that ran from brow to jaw. Zero roared at him, and he punched the black spined head with all his strength, again and again, until his fist came away bloody. Zero grabbed him with a mechanical arm and threw him to the ground again, standing above him with blood dripping from his nose and lip, and one eye already puffing up in a bruise. Sonic expected another lecture, but all he heard was a scream from Zero, the scream of somebody who was thoroughly losing his mind.  
Zero drew his guns again, but there were only three blasts and then the weak clicks of empty chambers. Nevertheless, he continued pulling both triggers for an eerily long time, as though he expected the guns to fill up by themselves and the game to be on again. Finally, he threw the guns at Sonic and advanced with his mechanical arms swinging.  
"**FUEL CELLS OPERATING AT SEVEN, AT SEVEN PERCENT CAPACITY AND DROPPING!**" Rustbucket screeched, "**THIS ONE GOES OUT TO ALL THE GROOVY LADIES AND COOL CATS IN FUNKYTOWN! THIS PUPPY'S GONNA BLOW! DROP WHAT YOU'RE DOING, PUT YOUR HEAD BETWEEN YOUR KNEES AND KISS YOUR BUTT GOODBYE!**"  
Zero slapped Sonic hard with one claw-arm, and used the other to pick him up, shake him and throw him down again. Before Sonic could pick himself up, he was struck again. At last he managed a spin-dash away from the frenzied attack, and took off running. Zero engaged his rockets in immediate persuit.  
This was it, Sonic thought, the moment of truth. He was limping as he ran, bleeding and panting. He had taken about as much of a beating as he could handle, and this battle was taking its toll on him. If he couldn't think of a way to deal some damage to Zero now, then his frenzied enemy might actually succeed in his mission. But he couldn't think like that, he wouldn't. He didn't survive Cinos just to be slaughtered by some random with a grudge.  
(_There's an elephant in the living room, Sonic, don't overlook it. What are you missing? What can you use?_)  
Sonic was slowed by his injuries, sprinting with a limp, he could feel a charlie horse building in his thigh, preparing to send a crippling spear of pain through his leg, and he could hear Zero gaining ground behind him, could almost feel his breath on the back of his neck, and he knew that the next time he was caught he might not be able to get back up. Zero would rip him to pieces while he lay exhausted in the dirt. He turned to throw his enemy off, but he knew that Zero was right on his tail and this race would end soon.  
He turned again and found himself running toward Rustbucket, and the robot was clearly on his last legs. He shook and rattled violently, and his metal shell was blackened with its own radiating heat. The painted face on his bucket-head had melted, and he was no longer smiling. A very long, liquid frown now marred the robot's expression, the paint sizzling and popping on the hot metal. Sonic could feel his heat even from this distance.  
"**DAY OF THE SUUUUUUUUUUUU-**" Rustbucket droned, but his voice had slowed down like a stretched-out audiotape and he never finished the sentiment. Sonic bared down on him and watched as a rusty compartment door squeaked open on his chest and the massive lens of his blast-weapon poked out like a joey out of its mother's pouch.  
The lens had a smiley-face painted on it as well.  
Sonic heard Zero approaching him from behind, roaring toward him with both rockets on full blast, accelerating. He thought he felt Zero's fingers grasping at his spines from behind. He knew what he had to do, but timing was crucial. If he moved too early or too late, this would end in his death. He had one shot, just one, and only faith to lean on to get him through.  
_Please, oh God let me do this right-_  
Sonic jumped. He shot upward like an athlete and curled into a ball as he did, if only to reduce his surface area as much as possible.  
An instant after he left the ground, Rustbucket fired his final blast of energy, and with it he exploded. The blast struck Zero directly, and with an agonized scream he was lost in the subsequent explosion. Sonic flew over the catastrophe and hit the ground rolling, unwilling to stop, hoping to get as far away as possible.  
The blast was catastrophic. It shook the ground like a quake, and Sonic felt its heat as he rolled at an excessive speed across the desert floor. To some degree, it even propelled him.  
Finally, after a dizzy length of time, Sonic came to a stop and sat in the dirt to rest his aching limbs.  
A plume of smoke not unlike a nuclear mushroom-cloud sat on the horizon like a grey buckle that taped the desert to the sky. The blast crater must have expanded for a diameter of at least a kilometer, by the look, and Sonic was slightly worried that he had indeed been irradiated. Rustbucket was more than a robot, he was a walking bomb. Sonic knew nothing of the fate of Zero Tolerance, but he wasn't about to trek into the heart of this blast radius again to find out.  
Meters from the resting hedgehog, an old bucket with a face painted on it fell from the sky and bounced, clanging, across the desert.

XXX

The people of Desolation cheered when a beaten and bruised Sonic limped back into town. The shouting, the laughter and the adulation was such that it was hard to believe that these people had been some of the most depressed on Mobius only a day ago. Complete strangers approached him to shake his hand, which he did with a smile.  
Espio and Niles pushed through the crowd to find him, expressions of concern on both of their faces.  
"I say," Niles said, "Dear hedgehog, I thought you were done for!"  
"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Sonic replied.  
"We heard an explosion... is he-" Espio began, but trailed off when he noticed the smoke plume on the horizon.  
"Dead? I'd think so," Sonic replied, but grimly. He found no pleasure in having to extinguish any life, no matter how dastardly. Murder had been Zero's game, not his.  
Sonic sat down with a grunt, still amidst the exaltation of the crowd. "Where are the other villains?" he asked.  
"Nobody knows," Espio replied, "In hiding, probably. The general attitude in town has shifted a little, as you can probably tell. I don't think these people would be prone to mercy if they caught any stray supervillains hanging around."  
Sonic nodded and looked over the townspeople who stood around him, smiling despite the ruination of a large part of their town. "I have a feeling that things are going to be all right for Desolation from now on."  
"Yes," Niles replied, "Jolly good. Now, if you and your friends are finally done playing epic battle, do you suppose we can get back to the task for which we actually came here? That is, if you're sure that nobody else is going to jump out of the bushes to try to kill you, at least for today."  
"Good idea. This is probably the best time to find that rune and take it away, in case its power takes hold again."  
Orlando Winterburn was standing beside Sonic with his eyes full of stars, and Sonic feigned happiness to see the teenage artist.  
"_Pow_!" Orlando exclaimed, "That was the most exciting battle that's ever happened here! _Boom_! Wow! That even beat when the Justice Brigade took on Cac-o-Jack the Destroyer! _Pow_! _Zap_!"  
"Well, I'm certainly glad that _you_ were entertained," Niles scoffed, "That makes this whole bloody ordeal worthwhile."  
"Check it out!" Orlando exclaimed, ignoring the fox, and opened his sketch pad, shoving it under Sonic's nose. The hedgehog took it and cocked his head as he looked at the page. There was a drawing of a tall blue hedgehog with a flowing mane of red hair and a thick suede jacket posing on a cliff at sunset with his hands on his hips. _Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog_, read the banner over his head.  
"It's... like... looking into a mirror," he muttered, glancing at Espio who was trying to hold back a snigger.  
"The Justice Brigade are gone, but my _new_ series is going to be even better!" the wolf exclaimed, "_Zap_!"  
"Good for you, kid," Sonic said, and handed the sketch pad back, hiding a look of vague distaste. "Come on. Let's see if we can't rustle a free meal out of these adoring masses before we get back to work."

XXXI

Desolation darkened into the soft ambience of twilight, and Sonic and his travelling companions were indeed treated to a banquet fit for kings, or heroes. Sonic was more tired than he was hungry, and after a modest meal he left to go to bed, although Niles and Espio stayed behind to devour as much food as they could possibly fit in their bodies. After all, it might have been a long while before they could eat this well again.  
Sonic made his way alone to the bed and breakfast they had rented for their stay (and the old squirrel who ran the place was much more spritely tonight than ever, smiling and offering to make him a cup of tea). After a short hot shower, he retreated to his room.  
A cold breeze bit through the little bedroom that made his moist and wounded skin cry out for mercy. The one window was open, and the curtains were billowing. Sonic hugged his shoulders, walked to the window and closed it.  
He started to turn back to his bed, when somebody attacked him from behind, cracking what felt like a rock over the side of his head.  
Sonic fell over backward with a startled and pained cry, grasping his temple where he had been struck, and the blood already began to ooze between his fingers.  
Zero Tolerance stood in Sonic's room, naked without any of his armour or gadgets, and looked down at Sonic with cold, hard eyes. Without his mechanical suit, it was easy to look at Zero and feel sorry for him. He was scrawny and showed signs of malnutrition, his ribs visible through the corrugated slate of his chest. He was unbathed and unkempt, and looked very much like someone without the first clue about how to take care of himself.  
What was more, there were patches on his body that were missing hair, and the skin underneath was red and badly blistered. They were burns, and they didn't look comfortable.  
"Get up, Sonic," he hissed, "Get up and face me. Come on."  
He was holding something in his fist, the rock he had used as a weapon. Sonic didn't have to see the symbol on it to know that it was a Rune.  
"Zero," he said slowly, "You need medical attention. I can-"  
"_Get up and face me you piece of trash!_" Zero screamed, and he kicked Sonic in the gut with all his might. Sonic recoiled, winded, but did not move to attack this emaciated corpse of a hedgehog.  
"It's over, Zero. You need to stop this, it's not doing you any good."  
"It'll _never_ be over."  
Sonic pulled himself to his feet and chanced to approach the battered intruder. Zero was edgy, but stood his ground. Sonic put out his hand.  
"Where did you find that?"  
"It's something valuable," Zero spat, and he clutched the stone against his chest like a selfish child with his favourite toy. "It's Rustbucket's heart. It powered his weapon, and when I figure out how it works I can build one of my own. Then you'll _die_, Sonic, you'll-"  
He fell back against the wall, and Sonic saw that his hand was trembling badly.  
"Why-" he stammered, "Why won't you _die_?"  
"Listen to me," Sonic said, "There are things happening right now that are more urgent than me and you. Please, Zero. Please, talk to me. What is this all about?"  
Zero shook his head and stared at Sonic like he was something incredible. "How do you do it, Sonic?"  
"Do what?"  
"How do you _feel_," Zero demanded, "Without falling apart?"  
"How do I feel? Don't you feel, Zero?"  
"It's such a fantasy. Mecha lost his mind wishing for life, wishing he could be just like you and live in a fleshy body. That's why I was built in the first place. But Mecha was an idiot. Life holds no rewards for a robot."  
For the first time, Sonic began to catch on to the reality of Zero's situation. It seemed an impossiblity, and yet it answered so many questions, unveiled so many mysteries long denied to him.  
"Imagine your soul," Zero continued, "Your consciousness, ripped from your body and uploaded into a completely alien processing system. Flooded, Sonic. That's how I feel. _Flooded_ with too many new sensations to possibly control. Pain, emotion, need. I'm drowning in it, Sonic, and the only way I can think to stop it is to kill you. Because you killed me."  
"Cyber Sonic," whispered Sonic.  
"Cyber no more, I'm afraid," the other replied.  
"But _how_?"  
"_You think I know that?_ You think I _asked_ for this, like that idiot Mecha? They put me in this body and left me to sort myself out, so that's what I have to do, the only way I know how. So you see, Sonic, you are my destiny now, and you must die by my hand so that I can finally live."  
"The hurting won't stop, Zero," Sonic said, "You can kill me, you can kill everyone who wrongs you, but you'll never be satisfied. You only think you will be, but that's not the way emotions work."  
"I don't _take_ advice from you!" Zero snapped, "You are my _enemy_! You are a talking _animal_, what would you know?"  
"About emotion, more than you. And it's all clear to me, now, I understand your hatred. I know how I hurt you, and I can see how ruined you are now. And Zero... I am sincerely sorry. I want you to know that.  
"You're _sorry_?" Zero shrieked, and moved to strike Sonic again. Sonic shrank back, but the attack never came. Zero trembled even more violently and fell to his knees. The rune fell from his limp hand and rolled under the bed. Sonic could see that tears were welling up in the black hedgehog's bruised eyes.  
"What h-have you done to me?" he sobbed, "My eyes. I'm t-trembling, I- I can't-"  
"Let it out."  
"It's a trick. You've p-poisoned me. How?" His face screwed up, his eyes vanishing behind walls of tears, and he collapsed on the floor with his limbs coiled into himself. "What am I going to do?" he whimpered.  
"Live a life," Sonic replied, "Get in shape, do something you enjoy, save yourself. Just live. It's not like being a robot in Robotropolis, you're not a slave to your own programming."  
Zero didn't respond, he merely lay in a fetal position and cried with his back to Sonic. The blue hedgehog got on his belly and felt around under the bed for the Rune. He found it, and looked at it. Just a normal-looking rock with a symbol carefully carved into its smoothed face. Just two straight lines, and another one waved, arranged in rows.  
He hadn't seen one this close before. Cinos had beaten him twice to these stones. Had Sonic only won the third time because Cinos wasn't present? The dynamics of good and evil and their power remained an enigma for him to puzzle over. Despite his long day, he wasn't feeling quite so tired anymore. And it was just as well, for he wouldn't be sleeping here. This room, at least for tonight, belonged to Zero.  
He looked back at the sickly skeleton-thing who was one of his fiercest enemies, sobbing and crying like an infant, curled up on the floor. He stared for a little while before leaving quietly and closing the door behind him with a soft click.

* * *

ZERO:  
The Fifth Interlude

I've travelled the world from sea to sea and seen remarkable things,  
The falls of empires, the rise of mountains, the legacies of kings,  
But never again in all my life have I been able to find,  
A being with a body of flesh, trapped with a robotic mind.

Life is such a precious thing, a gift from heaven above,  
A body that can feel the sun, a heart that can feel love,  
These gifts are not for metal things, not for created machines,  
Only for the born of flesh, the minds of God-made beings.

I met him on my travels once, a creature full of hate,  
He wanted all his enemies to meet a dismal fate,  
A mind that could not comprehend compassion, forgiveness or mirth,  
He cursed the very circumstance of his unusual birth.

I asked him, "Why do you persue such venegence, Dark of Heart?"  
He answered me, he said, "Our very minds are leagues apart,  
My emotions are too strong for me, I must put them to peace,  
I feel I must appease them or my life functions will cease."

I said, "But Dark of Heart, life is of choices, not commands,  
Emotions are not things to obey, but things to understand."  
His reply, "I know nothing of choices, I was never taught free will,  
I was built to merely follow commands, to persue, and pillage, and kill."

I've travelled this globe all over, oh the lessons I have learned,  
The cultures I have visited, great empires overturned,  
But what a lesson I have learned from one without control of his own heart,  
He lived without a purpose while his soul was torn apart.


	6. Six: Now You See It

AWAKENING  
S Peter Davis

All characters (C) SEGA, Archie and SP Davis 2004 (unless otherwise noted).  
Used without permission

* * *

Six:  
Now You See It

* * *

It's no secret that the stars are falling from the sky,  
It's no secret that our world is in darkness tonight...  
It's no secret that a friend is someone who lets you help,  
It's no secret that a liar won't believe anyone else...  
It's no secret that a conscience can sometimes be a pest,  
It's no secret ambition bites the nails of success...  
They say a secret is something you tell another person,  
So I'm telling you.

- U2

* * *

DETERMINATION

I

"We're going to die."  
Sonic looked up at Niles, who stared morbidly into the open water as it sloshed and ebbed against the hull. Quite a rusted hull, it was, and didn't look like it would withstand any more than a leisurely cruise.  
"I'm trying, guys! This heap of junk won't go any faster!"  
"You get what you pay for," Espio said.  
"Yeah, well, we spent all our money," Sonic replied, operating the engine, "Which wasn't very much to begin with. Why are you guys just standing around? Am I the only person here who's ever used a motorboat?"  
Espio and Niles looked at each other, then at Sonic.  
"Okay," the hedgehog said, "So maybe I am."  
The rusted white fishing trawler had been cutting through the water for half an hour. Once the mainland had disappeared behind them, it had been all ocean for as far as anybody could see, with no evidence of anything more.  
"Check our bearing, chap," Niles suggested, "I have a sneaking suspicion we may be quite lost."  
Sonic checked the compass on the board in front of him. The needle was pointing east. Suspiciously, he tapped it. The needle spun around three times, and then the pin broke off the shaft and sat motionless.  
"Uhhh... well..."

II

(I went to turn the grass once after one, who mowed it in the dew before the sun)

Sonic had been more relieved than anybody to see the fertile plains of Westerica again, after wandering south for so long through the arid wastes, marshy squalor and general nastiness of the Torion Cape. They had fled the country town of Desolation without looking back, after they acquired the stone they had been searching for, and headed east.  
Months prior, Cinos had escaped from the City of Clouds in a plane and nobody had seen hide nor hair nor spine of him since, though Sonic knew very well what it was that the dark hedgehog was doing. Somewhere in the world, he was digging up Runes. He had already recovered two of five, and had a significant head-start on the third. Sonic and his companions had one, and no idea where they might find the two that remained buried.  
After Desolation, there was much debate among the adventurers as to where they should be headed next. The only clue they had, the only thing even resembling a lead, was an old story that Niles happened to know, a story about an island of porcupines that may or may not actually have existed.  
Sonic figured that this was a hunch worth following up. Even if Cinos wasn't on the island (and Sonic had a feeling that he was), a colony of porcupines would be an important discovery in and of itself. For the porcupines were the gatekeepers of the knowledge of the Old Ways, of the Runes, and of the prophecies and legends that Cinos was persuing. They might even know the location of the remaining stones, and even if they didn't, they were sure to know _something_ helpful.  
If they existed.  
And so, with nothing in their possession but an ancient rock and a page torn out of an atlas (which Espio had commented looked almost as ancient), the three adventurers set off south and left the bizarre town of Desolation behind them. Sonic wouldn't miss it.

(The dew was gone that made his blade so keen, before I came to view the levelled scene)

A forbidding desert awaited them on the south side of the Cape, to the extreme dismay of Sonic and Niles. Espio, born and bred of the desert, was less discouraged. But nevertheless, the couple of weeks during which the three companions were forced to bear this unforgiving wasteland were very trying on their friendship. For there was another thorn in their side, now, and night or day, its attack was constant.  
The Rune hated them. This much was clear. The stone had poisoned the air of Desolation with its sickness for only a short time, but it had been enough to almost destroy the people who lived there and the community they maintained. Now it was poisoning the poor fools who had dared remove it from its resting place, and it hated them with all of its morbid energy.  
The slightest of trespasses on anybody's behalf seemed enough to fuel an argument, and the only thing that kept anyone from flying too far off the handle was the knowledge that every negative thought was intensified by the ancient magic dormant in the Rune they carried. Sonic had come up with a rule that they all followed - no matter the reason, no matter the context, the moment that any of them raised their voice in anger even once, all three of them were to stop talking, stop moving, rest and recover. Sonic feared that their group would split up if they allowed the negativity sickness to drive a wedge too deep. He knew, somehow, that this was the worst thing that could happen to his quest. Divided, they would fall.  
The unfortunate side-effect of this rule was that they rested much more often than was necessary. The more they slowed, the more gruelling their desert expedition became. The more gruelling the journey, the more unhappy the journeyers became. And naturally, unhappiness led to more arguments, which slowed them even more.

(I looked for him behind an isle of trees)

But there was more to the power of the stone than Sonic realised at first. Anger and depression haunted him and his party in the deep recesses of their subconscious, but then there were the dreams. Waking nightmares that plagued his sleep and then bled through into the real world as though manifested by their own lucidity. At first he thought the dreams were a sign that Cinos had slipped worlds again, but the dream residue he received from Cinos had never been able to haunt him in the daytime. Sometimes, the sun would be high in the sky and Sonic would be shuffling along wide awake, when suddenly he would turn his head to see a frighteningly realistic vision, of Zero aiming a gun at him, of Mecha blasting toward him with claws ripping at the air, of Cinos laughing and saying something he could never quite hear. Sonic would always dart to avoid his imagined enemies, usually shouting out and making a fool of himself in front of the others. The visions of Zero were especially plausible, considering he really had no idea whether the robot-made-hedgehog had been talked out of his crusade, or whether he was still persuing him, prepared perhaps to stab him to death in his sleep.  
And sometimes, though rarely, Kethriel would come to him. He would imagine his old mentor standing in the desert with a look of pain and fear on his face, and sometimes he would scream as he was torn apart by a marauding Silver.  
_I have to remember that none of this is real,_ he told himself, _Or else I might strike out at Zero one day and slice up Niles or Espio. Then they'll_ really _trust me._  
So it was whenever he was haunted by the ghost of one of his enemies that he would close his eyes and focus as hard as he could bear on the truth of his actual reality. Most of the time it would work. Sometimes it didn't. And sometimes Sonic half-expected that one day he would get it wrong, that Zero really would appear to skewer him, and all he would do to defend himself would be to close his eyes and try to will away an enemy that was really there. And then he would die.

(I listened for his whetstone on the breeze)

The desert ended suddenly, almost as though there were a fence that seperated the fertile lands from the barren. There was a range of short cliffs that served to divide the landscape, and Sonic felt as though his eyes might well up with tears when he saw the green plains stretched out ahead of him, for it had been months since he had seen lands so similar to those of his homeland. Somewhere directly southeast of him, and not that distant as compared to the length of his travels, was the Great Forest and the village of New Knothole.  
A tiny town named Lowndes sat on the border of the Barren Quarter and the Western Plains of Westerica, a homely borough not terribly much larger than the Freedom Fighter villages where Sonic had spent much of his recent life. So glad were they to reunite with civilisation that they spent three nights resting in Lowndes, and spent much of that time sleeping and eating. Sonic daren't stay any longer, for he feared that the Rune they carried might begin to corrupt this town as it had corrupted Desolation. The stone was like a black curse that followed them, and so simple was it to dispose of, but it was the only advantage they had over Cinos. Sonic was unwilling to compromise that advantage, no matter the cost.  
Carrying this stone, however it fought them, was nevertheless a relief for their hard work. They could truly rest without fear of falling behind. Sonic hoped that his evil twin needed all five to do any kind of real damage.  
It was only a stroke of luck that Sonic happened to engage in conversation with a shopkeeper in Lowndes and drop an offhand comment about twins. The shopkeeper mentioned that he, too, had a twin brother (though probably not an evil interdimensional one, Sonic figured) who lived a fair distance south in a city called Point Adrien.  
Sonic was thrown aback when he heard the name. Point Adrien sat on the northern side of the Great Forest, the very same forest in which he lived. It was the first town he had passed through after he set off. And how long ago had that been? Not as long as a year, but certainly over half of one. He had travelled a giant circle around the continent, from ocean to ocean, and now he was coming back around to the beginning.  
New Knothole probably wasn't much further south than Desolation was north.  
The shopkeeper lamented that Lowndes had been somewhat isolated in recent times. The unity that the Kingdom of Acorn had once maintained over the plains of Westerica was dissolving quickly; Sonic, confined to the southeastern shore, had no idea of the extent of this decay. Communication lines across the continent were breaking down. Towns and cities were drying up, people moving away. Westerica was essentially an anarchy, a collective of people without a government and with rapidly fading national identity. Local law was the highest authority, and squabbles between councils meant that the cities and towns weren't co-operating and communicating on anywhere near the same level as they once had. The implications were clear; Unless government was re-established in the former Mobitropolis soon, it never would be. Westerica would cease to exist as a national identity, and control of its people would probably be divided up between the Aracks who already had a solid foothold in the south, and the nations of the north who saw great opportunity in these fertile and ungoverned lands.  
Mail was only collected in the tiny northern settlements like Lowndes twice a year, and soon it would probably become once anually, if communications continued to deteriorate. It was just that nobody tried to contact the other townships anymore. When Sonic mentioned that he was headed southeast, the shopkeeper asked if he could carry a letter to his brother, and Sonic was more than happy. And with that, he packed his gear, and with an enthusiasm he hadn't felt in a long time, he headed into familiar territory, his companions in tow. There would be no more deserts, God willing, from now on.  
It was Niles who became increasingly nervous about travelling south into the fertile lands. Over the past months, when there hadn't been much to do to occupy themselves but to make conversation, Sonic and Espio had learned much about each other. Niles, however, was very closed up about his past life. He was happy to discuss the last few years which he had spent living in Stratosphereon, but before that, he may as well have sprung out of the ground overnight like a mushroom for all his companions knew of him.  
One thing, though, the fox made very clear - he was not to go near the Arack Empire, and if that was where their party was headed, then he would bid them good travels and sink his heels into the dirt.  
Now, though, he was particularly anxious, and the sick Rune they carried probably only made it worse with exposure. He regularly insisted that the Annual Isle was a myth, it didn't exist, and it was ridiculous to continue in search of it. Sonic feared that any day Niles might decide to quit and duck out, and their fellowship would be fractured.  
Niles didn't quit, though, and after a few weeks of travel through the heart of Sonic's homeland, they finally reached Point Adrien. It was a thrilling experience for Sonic to arrive in a town that he actually recognised, to see things familiar to him, and more than anything to look to the south and see the Great Forest stretched out along the landscape.  
Looking out at the forest, he was taken by a sudden and inconceivably powerful desire to change course, to enter the forest and head south until he smelled the Freedom Fighters' home cooking, heard the sound of music and saw the tops of bark huts over the foliage. He knew, though, in his heart of hearts, that if he went back to the Freedom Fighters now, he would lose the will to continue with his quest. He would settle down and convince himself that Cinos was doomed to failure, and that he needn't tempt fate any further by continuing with this horridly perilous journey another day.  
So he stayed strong, reminding himself that this was nearly over. Familiar territory lay before him, and he hadn't much left to do. New Knothole could wait a little while longer while he finished his errands. And, achingly, after delivering his letter, Sonic and his friends headed further south.

(But he had gone his way, the grass all mown)

It wasn't too long before they hit the coast. It was a milestone, for it meant they had truly intersected the entire land, having seen the oceans of the north and now the south. They came to a tiny fishing town called Port Knix, and here they decided to rest.  
It was here, however, that Niles lost his nerve entirely. For it was moments after entering the town that he saw something that drove him into a frenzy of panic.  
Mobian spiders. _Aracks_.  
Port Knix sat along the southeastern coast of Westerica somewhere between Terantulopolis and the subcontinent of Kirandul. In other words, this entire region had fallen under the blanket of the expanded Arack Empire. Clearly they didn't claim governance over this town yet, but it sat right on the road between Terantulopolis and Arack-dominated Kirandul, so there was a large population of spiders living here already, and that would only increase. Cultural dilution would eventually make this an Arack town. The same would probably happen to Point Adrien, in time. Especially if the Empire built another city in the north. There was certainly enough room in the Plains of Mirth for them to do so.  
Seeing spiders with his own eyes made Niles frantic. He refused to continue with what he described as a pointless bloody charade, gallavanting about over hill and vale in search of some imaginary island, and certainly not if it involved messing with Aracks. Sonic's insistance that the Empire had no jurisdiction around here held no water with the fox whose fear clearly stemmed from some past experience about which he refused to elaborate.  
But Niles had nowhere to go, and was just as hesitant to go wandering by himself anywhere, so he remained in Port Knix for three days, holed up the entire time in the low quality motel they were able to rent for peanuts, and Sonic and Espio tried hard to convince him to proceed with them. Sonic was worried that they were wasting too much time, and soon he and Espio might really have to leave him behind and set out by themselves, although Sonic was close to certain that he would fail without the support of both of his companions.  
Eventually, just as horizons began to look bleak, Niles cracked under the pressure. He agreed to follow them as long as they intended to leave this Arack-infested town and not venture any closer to the clutches of the Empire.  
A few helpful Port Knix residents were able to produce scattered remanants of the legend of a place known as Annual Isle. It seemed that, decades earlier, an explorer from nearby had chartered a vessel and hired a crew to take it around Mobius, in the hope of discovering new cultures and technologies. He failed, however, until he'd turned around and come within miles of reaching home again. There was some kind of accident on board - many say it was a fire, many say that it struck rocks, but he himself said he was attacked by a sea monster - and the crew was tragically lost at sea. The explorer himself, however, washed up on the mainland alone and carried with him a story about an island with a friendly race of primitive people who nursed him back to health. Since then, there had been many expeditions to locate the mysterious island. Most came back empty-handed, but some claim to have seen it with their own eyes, but not to have landed because the seas were too treacherous. Officially, the place was a myth.  
When they were ready to embark again, Sonic chartered a fishing trawler with what money they had been able to save. The boats weren't cheap, and their finances only allowed a rusty vessel that was barely seaworthy at all.  
It would have to do.

(And I must be, as he had been,--alone)

III

"It should be right here," Niles said, "According to the maps. I hope you're happy now, dear hedgehog, we've been driving out to sea for half a day, now, and I'll be mighty surprised if this piece of rubbish will hold together long enough to get back!"  
Sonic looked around. Nothing but ocean from horizon to horizon, lapping softly at the boat.  
"Maybe the compass is a bit off," Espio suggested.  
Sonic cleared his throat and stepped back a bit. "I have a bit of a confession to make," he said, "We've been travelling without a compass for a little while."  
"What? For how long?"  
"Since a few miles ago. Sixty-four."  
"Great cripes!" exclaimed Niles, "We've been travelling blind? We could be anywhere!"  
A wave splashed against the hull in response. There was a squawk as a seagull flew overhead.  
"Well, that's a good sign," Sonic said, "Seagulls only come out into the open sea if they're going to die."  
"Does it look sick?" Espio asked, shielding his eyes as he squinted upward.  
Niles sighed. "Listen, lads. I say we turn back. It's afternoon already, and we don't want to be out at sea at night without a compass. At least we can tell west by heading towards the sun."  
"Yeah, all right," Sonic replied, jumping down to the cabin, "I doubt Cinos is still around here anyway. We should get our bearings back in town and decide where we're going to do with this rune."  
He looked at the small stone tablet sitting against the dash. As he eyed it, he suddenly felt as if he hated the island for not being there, hated Espio and Niles for not helping find it, hated the boat for being so ratty, and hated Cinos for making him leave home in the first place. It was almost nauseating, a feeling that decreased in intensity the moment he looked away from it.  
"I hate that blasted thing," Niles muttered.  
"That thing's been making us unhappy ever since we got it," Espio said as he walked down towards the cabin where Sonic was standing, "I wish we'd gotten the Happy Rune, or at most the Rune of Mild Discontentedness. This is driving me nuts. Hey Sonic, what's that?"  
The chameleon was pointing to the control board, in particular a large radar-looking glass bubble with a few moving blotches on it.  
"Fish-finder," Sonic replied, "It's a gadget that's supposed to help us do what we're supposed to be doing out here, which certainly doesn't involve looking for mysterious islands."  
"Oh, right," Espio replied, "Looks like there's a pretty big one out there."  
Sonic looked at a large blip that had appeared on the screen, not knowing how to read it properly. "Probably a shark," he said, "Or maybe this thing's busted, just like everything else on this boat."  
"I think it's coming towards us."  
The instrument began beeping faster and more urgently, as the big blotch moved quickly towards the centre of the bubble, where two white lines intercepted.  
"I think that's behind us," Sonic said, "And in that case, it's moving a lot faster than we are. Hey Niles! I think you better get off the deck!"  
"What?" the fox shouted, "I didn't hear-"  
Bash! The ship banked heavily to the left as something smashed into the side of it. Niles went flying across the deck, but managed to keep his balance before he went over the edge. He promptly scurried back to the cabin. "What the flipping heck was that?"  
"Big fish on starboard," Sonic replied, "I mean port... I mean... the right. Out that way. I think it's a shark or something."  
"What kind of shark goes around bopping ships?" Niles demanded, "I don't like the look of this at all."  
The ship banked again, something ramming into the hull. There was a splashing sound as something fell off the side and into the water.  
"Don't worry crew, we're okay as long as we stay on board," Sonic said, "There's nothing in the ocean big enough to eat this whole boat."  
"Forgive my skepticism," Espio replied, "But I'm pretty sure there's a predetory chain of order that says that an animal won't take on another animal unless it thinks it has a good chance of taking it down. That's how it works where I'm from, anyway."  
"Yeah, well, we're not in the desert anymore, and we're not an animal. We're a boat."  
"Oh, we're a boat!" Niles said, "Funny, I could have sworn we were a fox, a hedgehog and a lizard lost at sea and about to be eaten by a blinking _whale_!"  
"Will you two stop it?" Sonic demanded, "We're going to be fine, okay?"  
There was another hard ram, this time on the other side of the vessel. A warning light appeared on the control board, warning of a hull rupture and water intake. "Yeah okay, this looks bad I admit..."  
"This piece of junk wouldn't survive being christened with a wine bottle, let alone being chewed up by a sea monster!" Espio exclaimed.  
"Okay, okay, ix nay on the sea monster talk, guys," Sonic said.  
There was a loud noise outside that sounded like a cross between a whale's sonar call and a rusty chainsaw motor. It continued for a few seconds, and then ended at the same time as the ship was rammed a third time.  
"Are we moving as fast as we can?" Niles asked, "This doesn't seem very fast, to me."  
Another ram. This time it was accompanied with a disheartening crunch. Something seemed to grab a hold of the boat, and the entire vessel began to spin in circles. The control board reported rudder damage. Then there was another crunch, a hard jerk, and then silence. The sound of the motor had disappeared completely.  
"This isn't the time for jokes, my dear hedgehog, please turn the engine back on," Niles asked with a tremor in his voice. The ship's velocity slowly decreased towards zero.  
"Uh, it wasn't me," Sonic replied, looking out the back of the vessel, "You know that thing, it's kind of like a little fan that spins around underwater and... makes us move?"  
"The propellor?" Espio suggested.  
"Yeah. I don't think we have one anymore."  
There were warnings lighting up all over the control board. Fuel leak, water intake, rudder damage, motor damage... "Geez, this is a rental... Somehow I don't think we'll be getting our bond back."  
"I think we have more important concerns at this juncture," Niles replied, "So can you get us out of here or not?"  
"Maybe it'll go away," Sonic suggested, "I don't think it's here anymore, listen."  
Silence. Nothing but the lapping of water against the hull.  
"See?"  
_Crunch!_  
The ship began spinning in circles again, and the sound of wood splintering could be heard clearly above the waves. Then more silence.  
"Okay guys, what's the lifeboat situation?"  
There was only one lifeboat attached, and it looked even dodgier than the parent vessel. The three piled out of the cabin and started working to release the rusty rowboat.  
"Won't this make us easier game?" Espio asked.  
"It's in times like this," Niles replied, "That logic must give way to fear. Now help me push."  
The lifeboat was lowered towards the water, and Niles and Espio jumped into it while Sonic continued to lower the rope.  
"Take the rune," the hedgehog said, and handed them the stone.  
Suddenly, there was a massive jolt from the opposite side of the ship. The deck shifted, and Sonic was thrown backwards as the rope slipped out of his grip. The lifeboat fell to the water, and Sonic fell off the other side of the boat - but not before he was concussed by a collision with a metal bar.  
He was knocked out cold, so he never felt the splash.

IV

Splintering headache...

Cotton mouth...

Taste of...

blood?

"Aah, son of a..." Sonic grunted under his breath as he opened his eyes and tried to focus on his surroundings. Campfire, wooden posts, sounds of chanting...  
"Chameleons?" he questioned, and suddenly grew afraid. Escaping from a chameleon colony was something he'd already experienced on this journey, and he wasn't ready to do it a second time. But no, this was different somehow... he could feel grass in his hands, could clasp it between his fingers. He could see the moon, although it was blurred in his sight. And cold, miserably cold. He wanted to roll up into a ball, or crawl over closer to the blazing campfire.  
"Spirits of Mazsha," the shadowy figures chanted, "The great force that guides us, give us knowledge in these dark times..."  
"Asprin!" Sonic groaned loudly, "I need asprin over here! I have a lump like a rockmelon on my head and I'm not happy!"  
Nobody approached him. There seemed to be a camp around him, or a village like New Knothole. He was in some kind of village square, and so were most of the residents. The smell of smoke and incense were strong in the air, and Sonic had to lie flat so it went over his head and he didn't cough. Everything was so blurry.  
"Hey!" he shouted, "Hey! Somebody wanna explain what's happening?"  
He was being completely ignored, and he didn't feel up to screaming all night, so Sonic took to figuring out where he was, precisely. There were wooden posts near him, around him... Vaguely he realised he was in a cage.  
"Aah crud," he said, "I hate cages." He tried to focus on one of the bars, but it wavered and blurred before his eyes. "And now I think I'm pretty badly concussed. Just fantastic." He spat in the grass, a wad of phlegm that tasted like blood.  
Sonic assumed that he could probably spindash through the wooden bars quite easily, but the thought of moving his head, let alone spinning it violently, made him want to wince and throw up at the same time. Looked like he'd be staying put, at least for the time being.  
Trying to shake the dizziness, or at least control it, he flattened himself against the ground and squeezed his eyes shut. The cold forced him to crawl closer to the fire, as close as the cage would allow him, and he soon fell asleep unintentionally.  
He woke up when sunlight filtered in, hurting his eyes. Sonic thought he was in the Great Forest back home for a moment, before he remembered himself. There was still a feeling of discomfort in his head, the headache remained, and he had bruises that felt like they had swollen to the size of coconuts, but he could at least think clearly.  
There was a girl. Sonic squinted in the sunlight and saw her face clearly. What he saw improved his mood a great deal, and for a moment he forgot his pain and discomfort.  
She was breathtakingly attractive, decorated, and porcupinian.  
Her fur a deep orange, her hair long and tied back, she sat cross-legged near Sonic's cage, not entirely facing it, eyes closed and lips moving softly, as if praying. He thought he heard what she was saying - whispering the word "blizzard" over and over - but couldn't make sense of it.  
_Found it!_ his mind screamed, _I found it!_ Porcupines, thought to be extinct, now here in the flesh on what was surely the mysteriously hidden Annual Isle. Porcupines, living in a thriving community, locked away from the rest of the world.  
It also seemed that he was their prisoner.  
"Hey," Sonic prompted.  
Attracting no response, he tried again. The porcupine girl was trying hard not to take any notice of him, so he gave up quickly and tried to drag himself to a standing position. His legs wobbled a bit, but he managed.  
"So, you guys gonna kill me now, or what?" he asked.  
Surprisingly, the girl's eyes flittered open, although Sonic hadn't really expected a response.  
"Perhaps," she said, gazing at him without much emotive expression, as if he'd asked whether it was likely to rain today.  
"What do you mean _perhaps_?" Sonic asked, taken aback, "You don't know what you're going to do with me?"  
"It's a dilemma that the elders must discuss among themselves," the girl replied, "We do not punish anybody with death, in usual circumstances, but these are not usual circumstances. It might be decided that the ongoing goodwill of Mazsha cannot afford your ongoing survival."  
"What are you talking about? Punishing me? For what? Where am I, anyway?"  
The girl fell silent again, closing her eyes. Suddenly, the answer to Sonic's question dawned on him. He remembered the boat trip, the attack at sea...  
"Is this the Annual Isle?" he asked.  
The girl opened her eyes again. "This is the Land of Septennia," she replied, "Our Haven. Our Eden. The land that you came to defile."  
"I didn't come to defile anything! Where are my friends?"  
She merely shook her head and walked away with anger dripping off her face.  
Sonic sighed and crossed his arms. Apparently, this wasn't going to be as simple as he'd hoped.

V

Sonic was feeling considerably better later in the day when he was approached by another stranger.  
She was a very old porcupine female, so frail that she looked as if a breeze could knock her head-over heels. Her hair was adorned with numerous barks and twigs and leaves, and she walked with the help of a rough wooden walking stick that was merely a carved branch.  
"Who are you?" the hedgehog asked, looking cocky despite himself. He knew now that it wouldn't be difficult to escape the strange village, should there be any sign of trouble. But escape wasn't what he wanted, not after he had made such an effort to find these people. He hoped very much that they could be reasoned with.  
"You can wipe that look off your face first," the old stranger replied, "It is _your_ identity that we must discern, for we have been lied to before. If you are the blue witch of prophecy, then you already know who I am. However, my granddaughter had a dream, and if I have interpreted this sign correctly, then your coming is indeed a blessing, and I must introduce myself. I am Alastrine Ardra Morrigan. These people look up to me as their most senior."  
"I'm not sure I understand," Sonic said. "Am I on trial, here? I haven't done anything to you."  
"That will soon be determined."  
"And what if you determine incorrectly? What are you going to do to me if you decide I'm guilty of something?"  
"If you are guilty, we will know. If you are innocent, we will know."  
"I can get out of this cage in a heartbeat, you know."  
Alastrine smiled in the way a mother might if her child has just said something cute and naive. It ticked Sonic off, proud as he was. He watched her as she looked at him, and it was a queer expression that her face took on, like deep concentration. Like this very conversation was just a diversion to buy her time for something else.  
Even from his limited encounters with Cinos' guide, Rasputan, Sonic knew enough about porcupines and their so-called Old Ways to be seriously wary of letting them work their spells around him.  
"What are you doing?" he demanded.  
For a moment she gave no reply, merely narrowed her eyes and continued to stare at him, through him. Then she blinked and turned away.  
"A decision will be made soon."  
"Great," Sonic muttered, and sat down, wondering how much strife he was really in.

VI

"I don't suppose you know where we are," Niles asked, "This doesn't look like that horrid town, that's for sure."  
Gentle waves lapped up against a pristine beach of white, unpolluted sand. To the west, a flat blue horizon sliced the ocean against the sky. To the east, the view was blocked by a barrier of tall, tropical trees. The jungle was overgrown, wild.  
"I'm not sure we're back on the mainland," Espio replied, and he reached into the lifeboat to lift out the stone rune. "Come on, we have to find Sonic."  
"Ah yes... Sonic. You do think the good chap is still alive, don't you?"  
Espio blinked and looked up at the fox. This was the first time the idea had been presented that Sonic might not have actually made it. "Well... yeah. Yeah, sure of it. Aren't you?"  
"Of course. Except... well, you know. We did just spend a considerable amount of time searching for our dear hedgehog after that sea beast let up. And... well, there was no trace, was there?"  
"Yeah, but then this island appeared, and I'm sure he would have managed to swim here, it wasn't that far."  
"That's another thing," Niles interrupted, "I would like you to stop saying that the land we're standing on appeared out of nowhere. It makes me think you've gone completely bonkers."  
"Well, did _you_ see it? I mean, before we almost ran aground on it."  
"We were looking for Sonic, the poor chap. And putting a bloody good effort into it, too, mind you, so we needn't beat ourselves up about... well, not... finding him."  
"We'll find him. Look, we washed up here, there's more than a good chance that Sonic did, too."  
"What makes you so sure?"  
Espio shrugged. "Maybe... maybe he was _supposed_ to wash up here. I dunno, I get this feeling sometimes like things aren't entirely in our control. Like, the way things happen is the way they're supposed to happen."  
"My dear lizard, you're beginning to sound like our friend Sonic, yourself."  
"I know, I don't even know what I'm talking about. It's ridiculous. I just feel like we shouldn't give up on him, we should do our best to find him, because..."  
"Good chap, loathe as I am to admit it, I know precisely what you mean."  
Darkness began to fall. Niles and Espio, after exploring much of the coast in search of their missing companion, decided that it was about time to start thinking about settling down for the night. Espio, a naturist since birth, knew that it was important to build a fire before the sun was down entirely. Niles, who probably hadn't spent a single night in nature for as long as he had lived, was cautiously optimistic. Espio told him to stop criticising everything and find some wood.  
Only a few minutes later, he heard an ear-piercing scream from within the trees. Before he knew what was happening, he saw Niles running full-pelt towards him, eyes wide and mouth open.  
"What is it?"  
"_Hideous_, that's what it is!" Niles replied, "There was something bloody well staring at me inside that bloody jungle, and I don't know what it bloody well was, and I've read a _bloody lot_ of books!"  
"What did it... bloody well look like?" Espio asked calmly.  
"Well, it was... big! And quite unfriendly if I do say so myself, and I think we should start thinking about getting off this island before we see it again!"  
"You're seeing things," Espio said, "It was probably just a... just a... deer."  
"Deer don't live in the jungle, to be quite frank."  
"Well, what does live in the jungle?"  
"Lions, dear chap. Lions, and tigers and bears."  
"Oh my. I'm starting to see your point."  
Another sound emerged from the dark depths. Although this time it was not emitted from Niles. A throaty, wet roar, lasting for several seconds before falling into silence. The two castaways looked at each other, and then into the jungle. The sound had frightened the birds from the trees, and now there was movement close by.  
"Uh-oh," Espio choked, stumbling back a bit, as something began to emerge.

VII

Sonic awoke to the sound of something roaring deep in the jungle. He had only recently drifted off, enchanted by the sound of the crackling fire that the porcupines were setting up, and he was ripped out of his slumber by the sound, which was like a lion's roar with a throaty _whoop_ behind it. And much louder.  
His eyes sprang open and he shivered a little. He'd never heard an animal make a sound like that before, and had no desire to meet the one that had.  
There was someone sitting beside his cage. It only took a moment to recognise that it was the girl who had been there the first time he woke up on the island.  
"Hey," he said.  
The porcupine let out a long and exaggerated sigh. "You have a way of breaking my meditation," she said.  
"I broke your meditation? Maybe you didn't hear the _giant monster_."  
"Yes, I heard it. But it does not bother me."  
"Doesn't _bother_ you? If I wore pants, I might have soiled them. What _is_ that thing?"  
"It is the Wood Devil. You will be quite safe from it, provided you never leave the village."  
Sonic grunted and sat back down in the grass. "You know, I'm getting pretty tired of waiting for you guys to figure out that I'm innocent of whatever you're holding me with. I've tried to play it your way, but in light of this evidence I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to bust outta here and run for it."  
"Try it," the girl replied, a little smugly.  
"Who _are_ you, anyway?" the hedgehog demanded, trying to sound a lot stronger than he felt.  
"Roxanna," she replied, "That is to say, Roxanna-Le Ardra Morrigan Destra. And that is all you will know about me, Blue Death."  
Sonic smirked, "Blue Death. That's cute. I kinda like it. I have a name, though, if you'd care to use it. I'm _Sonic_."  
"Yes," Roxanna replied, "A fitting title. The other folk here would quite openly report about how sonic you can be."  
"Hey, are you calling me noisy?" Sonic demanded.  
"And annoying," she replied.  
"That's _it_! I've tried to be civil, but if all you're gonna do is poke fun at me while I'm in a cage, then bugger you. I am _out_ of here."  
Sonic, feeling rather sickly but otherwise having recovered from his ordeal, rolled into a ball and spindashed the wooden bars. He broke them, but not all the way - they splintered instead of breaking cleanly, and he found himself jammed inside a morass of sharp, jutting posts.  
"_Ouch_!" he yelled, "Help!"  
"That is called karma, Blue Death," Roxanna said bluntly, "It would serve you well to get used to it."  
Out of the shadows, two strangers approached as Sonic struggled. They were both heavily adorned male porcupines, very muscular, and one carried a spear.  
"Prisoner, you are required to have council with the elders," the armed porcupine announced.  
"I might need a little help first," Sonic replied with a grunt. The porcupines began to pull the cage fragments away, allowing the hedgehog to slip out. Sonic winced and pulled a splinter out of his arm. "I _hate_ cages."

VIII

Sonic was escorted through the village for the first time, and saw how large it was. The Freedom Fighters' villages were small by comparison. Every single resident was a porcupine, and they stared at him with mixed expressions as he passed them.  
There was an enormous tent set up inside the village, and it was illuminated by a fire burning inside. The warriors let Sonic enter by himself, stopping some distance back as though they weren't allowed inside. This was promising, because if they did indeed have malevolent intentions, they were making a stupid mistake. Sonic could bolt at the first sign of trouble, and he was confident he could get away clean. He had suffered a moderately large gash in his leg, but he wasn't crippled by it. It wasn't the first injury he'd sustained on this journey, and it wouldn't be the last; If he survived this adventure, he'd be going home with some new scars. He looked at the warrior with the spear, who simply motioned for him to enter.  
Sonic parted the cloth and peered inside, hoping it wasn't full of spear-throwers awaiting his execution. There was no such danger - the half dozen individuals inside were sitting by the fire, warming up, completely unarmed and unthreatening. He recognised one of them as Alastrine, the old porcupine, and she saw him and smiled. Sonic stepped inside, and immediately noticed that two of the tent's occupants were in fact Niles and Espio.  
"_Sonic_!" Espio shouted. He was wearing a shawl, rubbing his hands together by the fire, but stopped dead when he saw the hedgehog.  
Niles didn't even seem to notice his presence. Two young porcupine girls were sitting either side of him, giggling and braiding his hair with ribbons and beads. He was chuckling and blushing so hard that Sonic thought his fur might light up and his head catch on fire.  
"Oh, good to see you, old son!" he exclaimed, unusually cheerful.  
"Hey guys!" Sonic said, "Am I ever glad to see you! Are you here as witnesses for the defence? I need someone to vouch for my innocence."  
"There is no need," Alastrine said, "Please. Sit. You have the trust of the elders, we recognise now that you are in fact the Martyr Angel."  
"Oh, I'm the Martyr Angel now!" Sonic said, dropping down in a space by the fire and shivering as the warmth enveloped him, "A few moments ago I was the Blue Death."  
"Our prophecies say many things. Our seers forewarn many coming events. It is difficult to interpret them sometimes," Alastrine explained. The other members of the select group occupying the tent all nodded in agreeance, but they let her speak. Interestingly, they appeared to be leaders, but they were mostly elderly females.  
Alastrine continued, "A few months ago, my own granddaughter told me that she had seen two angels. They visited her in her meditations. She told me that the angels looked almost alike, but one was a Dark Angel. She told me that this angel wanted to fill the four corners of this world with disease and famine. His intentions were dark and twisted, and he was proud of them. But the other angel, the Martyr, wanted none of his brother's dark wishes. They began to argue, and then proceeded to chew on each others' tails."  
"Yummo," Sonic interrupted. Nobody took any notice.  
"A while later, a stranger came to our Haven," Alastrine continued, "An outsider named Sharpe. And we took him in, shared our wisdoms with him. But I saw his aura, and it frightened me, a terrible omen. Nothing like I have ever seen before. It was like living tar, crawling and slithering over his body like an animal. Before long he became impatient and rude. He began to demand that we tell him the location of a particular sacred artifact. What we call the keystone, the Rune of Shalpad. The stranger left this place shortly before you arrived, and we do not know where he has gone. The reason we were so wary of you, my friend, is because the dark stranger looked exactly like you. The difference is that your aura is bright like the sun."  
"His name is Cinos," Sonic said, "My dark twin. We've been following him. Trying to stop whatever he's trying to do."  
For the first time, one of the silent porcupines spoke up, "What the dark one tries to do is something that has been prophecised, nevertheless feared, for millennia. He plans to merge the Upper Realm and the Lower Realm into himself, and all the spiritual energy from both worlds shall become one with him. He will envelop all creation, he will even envelop the gods."  
"Or so he says," Sonic said.  
"Those stones hold the key," Alastrine said, and she pointed towards the back of the tent. For the first time, Sonic noticed the stone they had acquired in Desolation, sitting there. "They have great power. All together, they provide the key to power beyond infinite."  
"Well, we're hoping that he won't be able to do anything too bad as long as we have one of his rocks," Espio said, smiling.  
"The Runes' power is cumulative," Alastrine replied, "Holding one or two is no great feat. If the Eternal Enemy, however, happened to control four of the runes, it is very doubtful that you would be able to stand in his way of obtaining the fifth. Doubtful that anybody could."  
The fire crackled as the group pondered this for a while in silence. Sonic gazed over at the lone rune that sat in the tent. The symbol seemed very enticing, like an old friend that Sonic had missed greatly. The rune seemed to smile at him - crazily, he smiled back.  
There was movement, and his gaze shifted upward. It was possible to see outside through the crack where the tent flaps met, and there was somebody looking in. A cackle, a flash of blue, and then nothing.  
Sonic shot up from his sitting position and bolted to the entrance, throwing the flaps aside.  
But the figure had vanished into the night.  
"What is it, Sonic?" Espio asked.  
Sonic turned around, a grim expression on his face.  
"Cinos is still here."

IX

The cold night breeze whisked by as the fire crackled and spluttered. Nobody spoke as Sonic stared into the darkness.  
"Why didn't anybody see him? Try to stop him?" Espio asked.  
"He looks like me," Sonic replied, "That's the problem with earning people's trust... he always seems to be there to give me a bad name."  
"This presents a problem," Alastrine admitted, "The trust of our people is not easily earned at times. Some may not believe you have pure intentions if the dark one continues to plague us with his presence."  
"You said before that one of the stones is here on the island, but if he's still here, it's probably because he hasn't found your rune yet," Sonic replied, "The last thing he's gonna do is hang around and wait for me to catch up with him if he doesn't have to. So I suggest we pack some supplies and go after it, so we can find it before he does."  
"I'm afraid that is not possible," said Alastrine, and Sonic, Niles and Espio looked at her in surprise. "Why not?" Sonic asked.  
"The Rune of Shalpad is deep in a sacred place," she replied, "Deep in the forgotten Darklands, in the temple of the ancients, the sacred place where our ancestors held their palaver and forged the Stone of Awakening, the Doorway of Worlds. The temple is protected always by the Wood Devil. It will attack anybody, no matter how pure their intentions, to keep the Rune safe. Not even our own people will venture inside the Devil's territory."  
"It's true, Sonic," Espio added, "This definitely isn't any ordinary jungle. There are weird looking things running about and I don't think they're friendly. We heard this... thing... right before the porcupines found us."  
"I heard it too," Sonic said, and looked crestfallen. "I don't know if you guys know, but Cinos is working with one of your kind to collect your runes."  
"Not one of our kind," Alastrine replied, and looked as though she had tasted something bitter. "I have had the dishonour of being introduced to Rasputan Nethergate, and I do not hope for a second meeting. He is one of those we cast away, so many centuries ago. He is a Bloodmonger. He does not belong here, and he is a blight on our homeland."  
"He knows your ways, though," Sonic said, "If anybody can get Cinos past your defenses, it's Rasputan. If what you say is right - about the power of the Runes - then I'm not going to risk him finding another one. He already has two. We have to go into that jungle."  
"Sonic, dear hedgehog, perhaps we should listen to them," Niles suggested, "They know best, after all."  
"You are brave and noble," Alastrine said after a moment of consideration, "If you are indeed to undertake this quest, then you should also be guided by somebody familiar with porcupine lore. Will you take a guide from our village?"  
"Sure, no sweat," the hedgehog replied, "That's a good idea."  
Alastrine smiled, "I know of one who I believe to be learned enough in our ways to guide you. My granddaughter Roxanna."  
"Gramma!" came a protesting wail. The girl who Sonic had spoken to earlier was now standing just inside the tent, although Sonic hadn't heard her enter. She looked surprised and shocked.  
"Do you not wish to leave the village on such a journey?" Alastrine asked her, "You have quite an adventurous spirit."  
"I don't... get along well with... strangers," Roxanna stammered.  
"That is to say, I don't think she likes me much," Sonic added.  
"Ah, clash of personality," Alastrine said with a wry grin, "There are greater forces at work here, more important issues to be prevented. You are the most qualified to take on such a task, my girl."  
Roxanna looked at the three adventurers with mixed expression. After a while she said "Very well, I will go."  
The quiet was broken by another loud roar from within the jungle. It was almost a howl, although no wolf on Mobius was large enough to have made it. It stopped the crickets from chirping.  
"I'll tell you one thing, I ain't looking forward to this," Espio muttered.  
The three guests were treated well in the hidden village on the Annual Isle, the land that the porcupines referred to as Septennia, and Sonic wondered how often they received visitors from the outside world. The way some of the younger villagers looked at him, it seemed as though they had never seen anybody who wasn't a porcupine. Sonic considered that entirely possible. There was something very strange about this island; he didn't bring up the fact that neither he nor Espio and Niles had seen it until they actually ran aground on it. But it stayed at the back of his mind.  
"I've come very far to find you," Sonic told Alastrine, "I've been following Cinos forever, but I still know next to nothing about what he's doing. I need answers."  
"And answers you shall be given," the elderly porcupine replied, "For the affair in which you have become entangled is one of dire importance, and wide implications. The time has come to palavar, for we have very much to discuss, and it is long overdue."  
Sonic nodded and watched the gap in the tent for sign of his evil twin. In the back of his mind, the sick rune throbbed its poison energy, and he supressed in a way that was becoming almost a habit.

X

The world was old.

It was already old when Mobius gave birth to mobiankind. The first mobians were the porcupines, and Mazsha was the name they gave to the Soul From Whence All Comes, the Spirit of Mobius. It was this spirit from which all life was created, and into which all life would once again be absorbed. It existed, they believed, in the centre of every being, from the smallest of insects to the largest of beasts. They believed that every creature had the gift of free will, given to them by Mazsha, and this free will could either galvanise or destroy their spirit, depending on how they used it.

For thousands of years, the porcupines walked Mobius in relative peace. But like all things, the world changed. New civilisations began to emerge, alien cultures of new mobian races began to crowd the planet, bringing with them new ideas like construction, government and empire. The porcupines were forced to interact with this new world, to find space within it and coexist, to keep their culture amidst a world of new ideas.

However, not all of the mobian races had peace in mind for the ones they called the Old People. It was primarily the imperialistic echidna people, brimming of pride with their technological advancements, and the warlike wolf tribes who terrorised the world with their merciless sacking and pillaging, who put pressure on the porcupines. These foreigners worshipped different gods, and further defiled the spirit of Mazsha by destroying her forests, polluting her rivers and choking her with cities and dams.

Hostilities with these new people was what forced the porcupines to retreat from the mainland and return to the Island of Septennia, the land where legend has it that the first porcupine was born.

But all was not well for the porcupine people, even though they lived on sacred ground. A great deal of the porcupines watched in growing fury as the new people of Mobius practiced their heathen religions, religions that defiled the spirit of Mobius and drove her inevitably toward ruination. Mazsha, they said, was intolerably offended by their insurrection against her, and the planet needed to be cleansed of their unclean presence.

These were the Bloodmongers, a new lineage of warrior porcupines who fought on behalf of Mazsha, and they led a crusade against their perceived enemies, sacking echidna cities and attacking anybody who indulged in offensive practices. They believed that the blood of Mazsha's enemies would cleanse her spirit, and that it was the only right thing to do. The Bloodmongers were the crusaders of Mobius, the fearsome hoardes from the south who struck terror in the hearts of infidels.

Not every porcupine subscribed to the Bloodmonger philosophy; in fact, about half of them did not. This was a source of escalating tension among the porcupines of Septennia. The Bloodmongers felt that those who did not agree with their methods were soft, even that they were traitors against Mazsha who would rather sit back and watch the spirit of their planet die than risk themselves in battle. Those who opposed them thought that their bloodlust was more offensive to Mazsha than the actions of those they killed. The porcupines began to fight among themselves. Before long, they were killing more of each other than of other races.

Soon it was feared by the porcupine elders, of both sides, that their race was at risk of extinction. Both sides felt they had a fundamental right to live on Septennia, yet neither was willing to suffer the other's presence on their homeland. It seemed the only option, for either group, was to eliminate the other. And so, war perpetuated and escalated on the island for years. Yet the wisest porcupinian thinkers recognised that this could only lead to their eventual self-destruction. The porcupines began to seek an alternative solution to what seemed an impossible problem.

And, remarkably, they found one.

XI

"They created the antiverse, didn't they," Sonic said, "Somehow, they did it."  
Alastrine nodded. "And so a pact, together devised in harmony, to seperate evenly the lands from the lands, the peoples from the peoples, and the flow of time itself. For the first time in a hundred years, all of the porcupinian people came together in peace, and held a mighty ritual. Legend states that the ritual lasted a decade, during which time nobody slept, ate or drank, spoke or broke concentration. They came together in prayer and cast a powerful spell that diverged reality. They created a new Mobius, a Mobius empty of people and thriving with nature's undisturbed bounty, and the Bloodmongers crossed over to this New Paradise to live as they would."  
The fire crackled and snapped in the dark tent as Alastrine fell silent and Sonic took some time to take this all in.  
"And the Runes?" he asked, "What are they?"  
"A great deal of power holds these realms together," Alastrine replied, "For without this power, they would spin away into the ether. This power was invested into a Stone, and this Stone was broken into five pieces and kept seperate. The Stone of Awakening is both key and doorway, for as long as it exists, there is a method of passage between the realms."  
"I see... The runes hold the universe and the antiverse close enough together that we can slide from one to the other."  
"Yes. The ancients remained in communication via the Runes, and they were kept on this side, with the understanding that they would be destroyed if either side broke the peace treaty. It was believed that one day the porcupinian people would all be reunited and would once again be able to live together in harmony."  
"What happened to them? The Bloodmongers?"  
Alastrine shook her head. "The Lower Realm, which you call the antiverse, grew sick over time. It began to rot, like an apple fallen from the tree. Our people lost contact with the Bloodmongers as forgotten siblings. We have not spoken with them in centuries, nor has anybody attempted a crossing to their realm."  
"So why not destroy the Runes?"  
"The Runes have been lost to us, and we do not venture from our homeland of Septennia. But for centuries we have protected the keystone, the Rune of Shalpad, from anybody in the world who might seek to collect the five. For the Runes harbour a terrible potential."  
"I think I know what you're about to tell me," Sonic said with a morbid tone, "Destroying the five Runes tears the universe and the antiverse apart. But bringing them together..."  
"Bringing the Runes together and reading them aloud would serve to reverse the spell that the ancients cast over them millennia ago. The diverged worlds would merge once again, and the spirits of both realms would be invested into he who has gathered the stones."  
"He'd be given the power to remake the world however he wants, right?"  
"Legend says that even the gods would stand aside for him."

XII

The three guests were given a comfortable tent-like shelter for the night, padded underneath with soft leaves. It was much more comfortable than the wooden cage, as Sonic remarked several times.  
"This is extraordinary," Niles said, hugging his shoulders and trying to get warm. It was cold, and although they were provided with sheets of thin cloth, it wasn't easy to adapt. "To think, we've actually found the Annual Isle. What a marvellous opportunity for research!"  
"You were one of those kids who actually enjoyed doing your homework, weren't you," Sonic replied.  
"It boggles the mind that this place actually exists," the fox said, "It seemed to me that they were all sailors' stories. Like mermaids, and giant squids."  
"And we've actually discovered a secret civilisation," Sonic added, "Do you realise what this means? These porcupines haven't had contact with the outside world for probably thousands of years!"  
"How'd they keep themselves so secret?" Espio asked, "Someone's got to have found this place, by air if not by sea! It's so close to the mainland!"  
"Well, we didn't bloody well see it," Niles said.  
"Niles is right," Sonic added, "I didn't see this island until I woke up on it. There's something really weird about this place."  
"You don't say," Niles replied, "Between the ferocious roaring from the jungle, the sea monsters in the water and an entire island that you can't see until you're on it, I'd say things are just downright usual."  
Sonic rubbed his sore head. There was a lump and an enormous bruise, and some blood had dried in his spines. He grimaced, and inspected the gash on his leg. Alastrine had dressed it with some kind of thick red paste, something horrible she spat into while she mixed it, and instructed him to let it sit. The paste had dried and the injury stung.  
"I've been clobbered on the head too many times to think about this," he said, "Let's just get some sleep. I just hope the rune is safe."  
"It'll be fine, they're taking care of it," Espio said.  
"Yeah, but I'm sure Cinos would appreciate the opportunity to get two runes for the price of one while he's here. You heard them say that if he has four, nothing's gonna stop him from getting the fifth. And he does look like me."  
"You told them to kill you if you tried to take it back tonight," Espio replied, "I think you've covered that base."  
The jungle was wracked with another loud wail from the Wood Devil. It made Sonic shiver, and his friends looked at him worriedly.  
"Maybe its bark is worse than its bite," he suggested. But they all knew it wasn't true.

XIII

That night, Sonic had a dream, as he did so often recently. But this one was so much more terrifying than any before it - for the first time in so long, he dreamed of snakes.  
He was running through the jungle, running as fast as he possibly could. He was being chased by a snake, and although he couldn't see it, somehow he knew that it was right behind him, snapping at his ankles, trying to poison him. It was as fast as he was. But, how was that possible? Sonic was the fastest thing alive! He couldn't be beaten by a snake... not a snake, not anything!  
Eventually the trees dispersed. He wasn't in a jungle anymore, he was in a garden. The mosquitos and leeches gave way to bees and butterflies. The trees bore fruit and beautiful flowers, and they were dressed rather than strangled by the thin creepers and vines. It was a dead-end, only one way inside, and Sonic had to stop running. But the snake didn't attack him. It passed him and wrapped itself around a tall apple tree, which had the biggest, reddest apples Sonic had ever seen hanging from its branches. The snake itself, which was visible for the first time to Sonic, was covered in the most brilliant red stripes, it almost glowed. And it was a kind of snake had never seen before. Most had only two fangs, but this one had a mouth full of them. It seemed to twist into a devilish toothy grin. And it laughed.  
As Sonic stared, however, he realised why the snake had been almost able to catch him. It wasn't actually a snake at all, it was a hedgehog. It was Cinos hanging from that apple tree, and Sonic felt more hate for his evil twin than he ever had for anybody. How _dare_ he steal the abilities of the One And Only Sonic? He wasn't the best anymore, and it killed him.  
Cinos chuckled as he reached up and picked an apple. The snap was almost deafening when it broke away from the tree, and Sonic realised that he had a headache. Cinos climbed down, walked up to Sonic, and held out the apple as some kind of offering.  
"There's trouble in paradise, Sonic," he said in his raspy parody of Sonic's own voice, and Sonic looked up at him. He didn't take the apple, but Cinos continued to offer it. "You hate me more every day," Cinos continued, "But soon you will fall for me. You will fall for me, brother, I know you will. You will fall because of your hate."

XIV

The sun rose over the horizon, shining through the trees first and bathing the village in an odd kind of light. It was about five in the morning when Sonic shook Espio awake.  
"Ugh... early..." the chamelion mumbled, his eyes heavy and his speech drawled.  
"We have to set out," Sonic replied, "I want to get a head-start on Cinos, and I don't know if he's out there already."  
"If I was Cinos, I'd sleep in another hour," Espio replied.  
"Come on, we're the only ones still in bed!" Sonic said, and he spread the tent flaps. Light flooded in, and the porcupines outside were milling around, making breakfasts and mixing herbs. Niles started to stir when the light hit him, and Espio groaned as he picked himself up. "What's wrong with these people?" he asked.  
"Looks to me like they greet new days with enthusiasm, and don't whinge about it," Sonic replied, "Up, you two!"  
"Great cripes," came Niles' voice, muffled by the floor.  
Alastrine was nearby, and they spotted her when the three of them emerged. She was stirring something in a pot, and smiled at them. Roxanna sat beside her in a cross-legged position, and gave a forced smile without much enthusiasm. "Well met," said Alastrine as Sonic sat down in front of her. The ground was hard, and quite uncomfortable, but the porcupines evidently had grown used to it and wouldn't have it any other way.  
"Are you hungry?" Alastrine asked, stirring.  
"I don't usually eat a big breakfast," Sonic replied, looking warily at the strange brew the porcupines endulged in.  
"Well, you must this morning," she replied, "You must eat well and heartily. The Wood Devil will have you, if you lax on energy. Crafty, he is, and cunning. I have mixed you a special stew for your venture."  
She picked up a large, thick wooden bowl and slapped three big spoonfulls of lumpy, green slop into it. The smell almost made him gag, and he took the bowl and looked into it. "What's in it?" he asked, trying not to sound disgusted.  
"Marrow root, foxleaf, redtree sap," she replied, "I have mixed some spices and starflower in for taste. The marrow root is bitter, but it will fill you with power."  
Sonic looked at Niles, who gave him a smug return gaze. _Now who's whinging?_ that gaze said. He looked back down at his breakfast, which he was evidently supposed to eat with his hands, and swallowed his pride as he began to pull his gloves off.  
"So, how far will we have to go before we reach the rune?" he asked.  
"I believe it lies at the centre of this land," Alastrine replied, "Where the trees are thickest and darkest. The centre of the Wood Devil's guard. No porcupine has entered that part of the jungle for greater than a thousand years. There are many dangers, the ancients laid many traps to keep the most dangerous of secrets sealed forever."  
"That is why you will need my guidance," Roxanna added, "To reach the rune without incident."  
Sonic squinted as he shoveled the foul-tasting porcupine breakfast into his mouth. It wasn't as bad as it looked or smelled, he realised, and loosened up a little. "But if nobody's been there for a thousand years, how do you know even you can help us?"  
Roxanna looked disheartened and even a little offended, but she kept her chin up. Alastrine smiled at her. "If Mazsha is looking over your souls, then you will be without harm. So has always been the way of things."  
There was another loud roar in the jungle, and it seemed a little closer than it always had. Niles gulped audibly and shifted position. "Say, would you chaps mind terribly if I sat this trip out? I can wait back here while you go in and do whatever you do."  
"Sorry pal," Sonic replied, "I might need your help, as strange as that sounds. We're all going in there, and we're all coming out alive. And we're taking the Rune of Nine in with us."  
Alastrine had referred to the stone from Desolation repeatedly as the Rune of Nine, and it had stuck with Sonic. He was sick of feeling like the only one in this weird adventure who didn't know the terminology.  
"Aw, why do we have to lug that thing around?" Espio asked, "The porcupines are looking after it here."  
"It doesn't matter, we can't risk Cinos getting either one of them. It'll be safer with us. When it comes to the crunch, I can tell myself apart from Cinos better than anyone else."  
Alastrine nodded. "A wise decision." And then there was a long silence as she served some of the green slop to both Niles and Espio, and they all ate it politely. Espio actually rather liked the stuff. As they ate, Alastrine seemed to look over them, inspecting them for something, watching Sonic most of all. After a while, she said "You are full of hate for him, aren't you."  
"What?" Sonic asked, looking up.  
"The dark one who plagues our land. Sharpe, your shadow twin. You are full of hatred for him. But not just because of what he's doing... you hate him because of what he is."  
Sonic stopped eating and thought about it. He remembered the dream he had the previous night, about Cinos in the garden, and what he said.  
"Well, yeah. I mean, I can't seem to stop him. If it was anybody else doing this, I'd just catch them and pummel them. But Cinos... he shares everything about me that makes me special. He's good at everything I'm good at, and he's always one step ahead. I feel kinda robbed. He says-" But he stopped, and said no more.  
Alastrine leaned in towards him. "Pay no attention to the words of the Devil Hate is a very powerful weapon, Sonic Hedgehog. Hate alone can kill and destroy. The only hope you have is to aim it correctly, like the weapon that it is. We teach that you should hate what a person does, if what they do is wrong. But you should never hate what a person _is_. This is not something that anybody can change, and to hate a person for what they are will often lead to your own demise. That is the mentality of a Bloodmonger."  
"Uh, very philosophical," Sonic replied, "I think it's about time we got going. Cinos is probably already out there somewhere."  
He picked himself up and stretched. Alastrine nodded and stood up, herself. "Very well then. We shall prepare for your departure. May you have a safe journey, we shall all be wishing for it."

XV

Sooner than half an hour later, the four of them stepped into the section of the jungle deemed out of bounds by the porcupine elders. Roxanna took one look back to her village, as if to wonder if this was the right thing to do. Sonic carried the Rune of Nine, and Espio and Niles trekked slightly behind them.  
"Shouldn't we have some water or something?" Espio asked, looking up towards the canopy.  
"We do not want to be weighed down with supplies," Roxanna explained, "We will be following a river for most of the way. It is said that the water leads almost directly to the centre of the island."  
Sonic looked down at the rune he was carrying. The stone was rather small and lightweight, but it seemed to get heavier the more he carried it. That combined with the fact of his growing headache caused by his concussion started to dampen his mood. He decided to strike up some conversation with their porcupine guide to take his mind off it.  
"So your people have never been to the mainland?" he asked.  
The porcupine scratched the back of her head. "Not for centuries. Millennia. It is said that the ancients lived all over the world, but we returned to this place when the world became crowded."  
"Yes, well you certainly are secluded," Niles said, "Everyone thinks this island is simply a myth, believed only by the gullible and stupid." There was a tinge of bitterness in his voice, and Sonic figured he was probably angry with those who had convinced him that Septennia didn't exist. Angry always at everyone besides himself.  
"Perhaps things are better that way," Roxanna replied, "I have never seen people like you... I have heard stories about races vastly different from us who live in far off places, but I never imagined what they might look like. When the dark one came here a few months ago, nobody knew what to expect."  
The sound of running water led them to a stream. It wasn't very wide, but it was deep and very clear. "This is the river," Roxanna announced, and they stopped to rest.  
"Looks refreshing," Espio said, and he leaned over the embankment to take a drink. Moments later, Niles did the same. The water was cool and fresh, and there were large silver fish swimming around in it.  
"Ouch! I _say_!" Niles exclaimed suddenly, and jerked his hand out of the water.  
"What's wrong?" asked Espio.  
"That wretched little mongrel bit me!" Niles replied, pointing into the water. There was a small swarm of fish hovering around where he had been, and they looked aggrivated. Espio leaned closer to the water, and saw that they each had two rows of sharp little teeth in their mouths. "What are those, pirhannas?" he asked.  
"Heavens, I've never seen fish like those in my life!" Niles replied, "I've seen pirhannas, and those are most certainly not pirhannas!"  
"Are you two ready?" Sonic called to them, and looked down again at the rune he was carrying. When he did, his headache suddenly grew several times worse, and he had to squeeze his eyes shut. When he opened them, he was looking into the jungle amidst the trees... and he saw movement. Blinking, he squinted into the dimly lit corridor of trees in front of him. Something blue... it didn't take him long to notice that Cinos was hiding in the foliage, looking back at him. The evil hedgehog was grinning, trying to be inconspicuous. Sonic hated the way he grinned, like he knew that he was always one step ahead and he was smugly showing off the fact.  
"Sonic?" Espio called. Sonic raised a hand to silence the chameleon. "Cinos." he said. Then quickly he turned to his friends. "I'm going after him."  
Before anybody could protest, he took off sprinting into the jungle. He hoped to take his evil twin by surprise, but as soon as Sonic started running, Cinos took off in the same direction, jumping and sprinting through the rough environment at the same rate. Sonic yelled and tried to speed up, but he couldn't keep up with Cinos. "_Stop_!" he screamed, not expecting any compliance. Eventually, Cinos vanished in the darkness and Sonic slowed to a stop. Although he'd only been running for a few seconds, he realised he was completely lost.  
"Great," he muttered, and sat down in the moist dirt, "Great idea, Sonic, real smooth."  
He listened for a moment to the sounds around him. There weren't too many birds in the trees, but the few that existed sounded quite exotic. One in particular was very vocal. "Wibble-_kee_!" it hooted, "Wibble-_kee_! Wibble-_kee_! _Kee_!" There were plenty of frogs around, as well, although they hid themselves from sight.  
After sitting for a while, he heard the others approaching. He turned to them, and nobody looked happy to see him sitting down.  
"Slowpokes," he said with a wry grin.  
"Nice of you to run off like that," Espio said, "Are you mad?"  
"I almost caught him," Sonic replied, "I think he took off in that direction."  
"Yeah, well we didn't see a thing. We oughta get back to the river."  
They got up and started to trudge back in the direction they had come. Nobody said anything for a long time, and the sounds of the jungle could be clearly heard.  
"I must say, you have some mighty strange wildlife on this island of yours, my girl," Niles said to Roxanna. The porcupine merely shook her head, "I wouldn't know."  
"Wibble-_kee_!"

XVI

It was an hour before anything interesting happened. There was hardly a word muttered as they followed the stream, which got wider, deeper and faster the further they followed it. A couple of times they stopped to drink from its crystal clear waters, which were so pure it defied imagination.  
During one such rest, Espio sat on a mossy rock and dangled his sore feet in the water. The canopy gave way a bit, here, and sunlight streamed through to warm his skin. Sonic was drinking, and the others were standing around patiently. Niles in particular seemed to look forward to stopping.  
Espio looked to his left, where a cluster of thick bushes, the likes of which he had never seen before, led into the dark of the jungle. He caught movement, and stared in interest. Every so often the bush shook ever so softly, jerkingly. The chameleon leaned closer, to see if he could make out anything. Something was glowing deep within the darkness... no, not glowing, just reflecting. It was an eye, and it was staring at him just as intently as he stared at it.  
"Hey guys!" he shouted, but when the others came over, the eye was gone.  
"What is it?" Sonic asked.  
"Something's watching us from in there," Espio replied, pointing.  
Sonic kneeled down for a closer look. "I can't see any-"  
Suddenly, the bushes parted, and something leaped out of them. The four travellers fell back quickly, frightened. Niles let out a shriek and fell on his backside.  
The creature was lime green, and stood about the same height as Sonic, which was taller than Espio but shorter than both Niles and Roxanna. It appeared to be some kind of reptile, with a white belly and blue eyes, standing on two legs. It had tiny arms with claws, and a long beak lined with minute teeth.  
"What is _that_?" Niles demanded shrilly.  
The creature timidly walked up to Espio, who was also a lizard of sorts, and the two of them looked into each others' eyes. The creature rubbed its beak on Espio's arm.  
"What is that thing... Roxanna?" Sonic asked rather urgently.  
The porcupine girl looked at it, confused. "I don't- I-"  
"Aww, he's friendly!" Espio chuckled, and rubbed its beak. The creature crooned softly and nuzzled him. "It's like a big puppy dog!"  
"Big being the operative word," Niles added, "I think we ought to move on... slowly but warily."  
"Aw come on," Espio protested, and gave the creature a full head-rub. Its head swayed on its long, rubbery neck, and its eyes partially closed as if going to sleep.  
"We should move on, all the same..." Sonic said, "I've never seen anything like that before. Be careful it doesn't take your hand off, or something."  
The four of them backed away from the creature. It cooed, and bounced after them on its skinny legs, enthusiastically.  
"Shoo," Sonic commanded, "Go back to where you came from."  
It looked at him with its head cocked to the side.  
"He's just curious," Espio said, "He'll go when he loses interest."  
So they walked onward along the river bank, always mindful of the creature scurrying along behind.  
"You have no idea what that thing is?" Sonic asked again.  
Roxanna shook her head. "There are many creatures who live within these trees. Sprites, faeries, we coexist with them but rarely see them unless we venture out here, which we almost never do. We are entering the territory of the Wood Devil now, so we must be mindful of his presence."  
"Oh I do hope this devil thing is asleep, or something of the sort," Niles said, "I've had enough frightening experiences on this island."  
They looked again at the lizard creature. It stood, looking at them for a while, letting itself trail behind, before running over to them again.  
"You think _that's_ a faerie?" Sonic asked.  
"I have heard stories about such things, yes."  
The river eventually grew so loud that its flow was almost a roar. "Sounds like there might be a waterfall up ahead," Sonic said.  
"There's no telling what's ahead," Espio added, "Look."  
The flow of the river curved around ahead of them, and ran into a thorny tunnel of deadfall. Sharp, jagged sticks piled on top of each other, shrouding the river's progress in complete darkness. And a large pile of it blocked their passage onward.  
"I am not climbing over that," Niles said, "Gracious, it would cut me to pieces! And I'd never get the horrid stuff out of my fur!"  
"Well, we're going to have to," Sonic replied, "Right Anna?"  
"_Rox_-anna, thank you. I would ask you to use the name my mother gave me. And yes, I fear we shall have to scale the deadfall."  
"Well then, you first," Niles offered.  
It was difficult, but Sonic went over first, probing for solid foot-holds as he went. Some of the sticks were frail and snapped when he stepped on them. At one stage, his foot went through and he almost fell. Step by step, however, he finally reached the other side, and called out for the others to follow. Espio went over next, having watched carefully where Sonic put his feet. He carried the Rune of Nine with him. Then Roxanna went over, and, hesitantly, Niles.  
As Niles was climbling, he happened to look down behind him. The strange green lizard creature was looking up at him, head cocked to the side. Niles snapped a twig off the pile and chucked it in the other direction. "Fetch," he said. The creature didn't even seem to see it. If it did, it had absolutely zero interest. It just continued to stare at Niles with an expression of curiosity.  
"Hurry up Niles, where are you?" came Sonic's frustrated voice from the other side of the pile.  
"I'm coming, I'm coming," the fox replied, "Our lizard friend can't follow us over, methinks. And good riddance to bad rubbish."  
"Well, leave him and he can go back to wherever it is that he came from. We don't need wildlife following us around."  
They gathered at the bottom of the deadfall on the other side, and saw that they were heading into the darkest portion of jungle yet. Vines stretched through the darkness like giant spider's webs, and the ground was composed almost entirely of mulch.  
"Creepy," Sonic said.  
"The Darklands," Roxanna whispered, "The ancients told stories about this place. It is where the Wood Devil prowls. We are not safe here."  
All sound seemed to have ceased. The jungle was abnormally quiet, here, as if the blackness absorbed everything. Sonic looked up to the canopy, which had grown so thick as to barely let any light shine through whatsoever.  
"I've never seen trees like that in my life," he said, "This island is bizarre. It's like there's millions of new species here that probably nobody on the mainland has ever seen."  
"How is that possible?" Espio asked, "This place is so close to everybody! How can it be so different?"  
"I don't-" Sonic began, but had to stop abruptly and hold his head. His headache flared up again. He heard Cinos' voice.  
"Fall for me, Sonic, fall for me!" his evil twin chanted. Sonic looked up and scoured the area, but Cinos was nowhere in sight.  
"What's wrong?" Roxanna asked, exaggerating concern.  
"Nothing," Sonic replied, "Nothing at all."  
Something moved out of the darkness towards it. Sonic was sure that it would be his evil rival, and jumped into a defensive position. The others backed off, unsure what to think.  
It was the green lizard creature.  
"Oh, marvellous," Niles grumbled.  
The creature had something in its mouth. As it came closer, it was revealed to be a twig. The stick that Niles had thrown for it earlier. The creature brought it right up to him and stared at him.  
"Well I'll be sodded," Niles said, "It actually fetched the silly thing."  
The creature snapped the twig in its beak. The two halves fell to the ground.  
"Aren't you a clever thing!" Espio exclaimed, and reached over to rub its head. But the creature jerked its head back, making a sound low in its throat. Then it opened its mouth and snapped at the chameleon's hand. Espio just pulled away in time. "Whoa! Hey, easy."  
"We shouldn't try to tame the wildlife," Sonic said, "We don't even know what that thing is. Come on, let's go."  
"Yes, exotic creatures carry exotic diseases," Niles added.  
As they started to move off, the creature suddenly reared up, threw back its head and screeched into the air.  
"Wibble-_kee_! Wibble-_kee_! Wibble-_kee_! _Kee_!"  
"Hey!" Sonic exclaimed, "It's those things that make that noise! I thought they were birds."  
"Me too," Espio replied, "I wonder what he's doing?"  
A few seconds later, there was another Wibble-_kee_! from behind them. They turned, and another of the green lizard creatures came out of the jungle. The two of them bounced enthusiastically over to the four travellers.  
"How terribly sweet," Niles mumbled.  
Espio reached out to touch the creatures, but they both snapped aggressively at his hand. He pulled back and stumbled away from them, but they continued to stare at him with their heads cocked to the side, growling deep in their throats.  
"Wibble-_kee_!" one said. "Wibble-Wibble-_kee_!" the other replied.  
"Uh, Espio, did you do anything to make them angry?" Sonic asked. When he spoke, one of the creatures ran over to him and snapped loudly at him. Sonic had to move quickly to avoid its jaws.  
"No!" Espio replied.  
"I think we have a growing situation here," Niles announced.  
"_Wibble_! _Kee_!" one of the creatures screeched.  
"Please, we mean you no harm," Roxanna tried to explain, "Let us pass through here, we are peaceful." One of the creatures snapped at her.  
"Wibble-_craaaank_!" came another sound from within the jungle, and the creatures immediately stopped and looked towards its origin. Something lumbered out of the darkness - it was like the other two creatures, only it was red... and much bigger. It stood taller than Niles, and looked down on them all. "Wibble-_craaaaank_!"  
"Guys, I suggest we get up one of these trees," Sonic said with a gulp. Before he had even finished speaking, Niles was already halfway up the trunk of his nearest tree. Sonic followed suit. Espio and Roxanna helped each other into another, while the creatures snapped at their ankles more aggressively by the minute.  
The red creature started scratching at the bark under Sonic and Niles' tree. They could see that its teeth were much longer and probably sharper than the green creatures'. They were scratching at the other tree, wibble-kee-ing at each other.  
"I do get sick of being right all the time," he complained.  
"Okay," Sonic said, "So I guess we... wait."

XVII

Time didn't defeat the persistance of the Wibble-Kees, as Sonic had grown to know them. About half an hour in the trees, and they could still see the creatures staring up at them, heads cocked, beaks snapping together.  
"Do you suppose they're carnivores?" Niles asked.  
"They don't use those fangs to chew bananas," Sonic replied, "I think we need a plan. I have a feeling they'll be waiting there for a long time, and I'm not willing to risk that we can go without food for longer than they can."  
"I am," the fox said.  
"Listen," said Sonic, "We'll have to get out of this tree. I'll bet I can run faster than they can, they don't call me Sonic for nothing. I'll carry you with me, and we'll try to lead them away from the others, so that they can get away."  
"I don't like this," Niles admitted, and sighed loudly.  
"Wibble-_kee_!" one of the green creatures screeched.  
"The problem," said Sonic, "is getting down."  
Both the Wibble-Kees were guarding their tree, circling and snapping their beaked jaws. The other creature, the Wibble-Craank, was guarding the other tree, where Espio and Roxanna were trapped. Sonic dangled his legs, turned and positioned himself for climbing down.  
"Hey," Espio said, "It looks like Sonic's trying to get down."  
"He cannot!" Roxanna exclaimed, "The sprites will have him!"  
"That's where we come in," replied the chameleon. He snapped a branch near his head, and threw it like a boomarang at the green creatures at the other tree. "_Hey_!" he shouted, "_Hey you! Yeah! Wibble-kee your butts over here!_"  
The Wibble-Kees turned their heads, frustrated. Espio threw another stick, and it hit one of them on the head. The creature screeched and snapped. Hesitant, but apparently curious, they left Sonic's tree to approach Espio's.  
"Let's go!" Sonic exclaimed, dropping out of the tree. The three lizard creatures screeched "_Kee_!" at the same time and jerked around to face him. Niles wailed and fell out of the tree.  
"Run!" Espio shouted.  
Sonic picked Niles up and threw the fox over his shoulder, and just as the creatures bolted to pounce on them, they ripped away in a cloud of dust, the only sounds being Sonic's feet and Niles' terrified scream.  
"I think this is our chance," Espio announced, and waited for the creatures to be out of sight before he dropped out of the tree. Roxanna dropped into his arms, knocking them both to the ground.  
"We are being warned by the servants of the Wood Devil not to proceed," she said, composing herself.  
"Yeah, well we have no choice. C'mon, we have to get outta here." The chameleon noticed the Rune of Nine against the trunk of the tree, and picked it up. "Which way is the river?"  
"I can hear it in that direction," she replied, pointing, "Let us hurry."

XVIII

"_Kee! Kee! Kee!_" the creatures chanted as they ran. Sonic was shocked about how fast they actually were. But they weren't as fast as Sonic the Hedgehog, and he savoured the wind in his face as he left them behind, their shrieks of protest eventually being drowned out. Niles' scream, however, was constant.  
After a period of time that neither of them could deduce with any accuracy, they came to the river bank and stopped running. Sonic tried to put Niles down, but the fox had a firm grip on the hedgehog's spines.  
"Let go!" Sonic protested.  
Niles relaxed suddenly and fell to the ground limply on his back. His hands still clutched slivers of blue spines, and his arms were scratched in several places.  
"Never," he said, panting, "_Never_ do that again. Do you understand what I'm telling you?"  
"Hey man, I just saved your life," Sonic replied.  
"Yes, quite. And, in doing so, you quite nearly gave me a cardiac arrest. Have you any idea how... sharp... you are?"  
"Compliments will get you nowhere, buddy. I hope Espio and Roxanna got away. At least we found the river again."  
Niles crept to the river bank and dipped his hand into the still water to wash the lacerations on his arms. "Say, this is strange."  
"What?"  
"This river is quite still. Yet, not too far back, it was moving in a strong current. Are you sure this is the same river?"  
"How many rivers does this jungle HAVE?" Sonic asked, "It's gotta be the same one. There's probably just some rapids back there, maybe a waterfall. It looks like easy going for a while up ahead, we'll be fine."  
"All the same, I am a bit wary of continuing without our... guide."  
Sonic looked around, an expression of puzzlement on his face. "I want to make sure they're okay, but.. heck, I don't even know which way we came from, let alone which way we're going."  
"It's quite obvious, dear hedgehog, that the way we came would look trampled and..." he stopped. Pretty much all the vegetation in the area had been trampled. There were several paths running into the jungle which all appeared well-used.  
"There seem to be a lot of animals live around here," Sonic said, "A lot of heavy animals. And I doubt they're any kind of creature we've seen before."  
"Well, they do say, if ever you lose yourself in the wilderness, stay put until somebody finds you."  
Sonic shook his head, "Not in _this_ jungle. I think we'd better just follow this river onward - assuming of course that this is onward and not back the way we came - and hope that the others catch up eventually."

XIX

Espio and Roxanna ran until they reached water, as well, but the river they encountered was roaring and splashing over rocks, creating rapids that appeared impossible to cross. Espio sat on a rock by the bank and set down the rune, panting.  
"We have lost your friends," Roxanna said matter-of-factly, staring at the river.  
"Yeah, I just hope those delightful faerie critters didn't catch them," Espio replied, "Do you think they found the river?"  
"It is difficult to miss," she replied, "Unless they ran further into the darklands, amongst the trees. I doubt that one would survive long, lost in these parts."  
"Charming thought," the chameleon replied, "You're not much of an optimist, are you?"  
"I am a realist. The important thing is that we are in possession of the Rune. We are in charge of its safety."  
Espio sighed, but it was lost amidst the sound of the splashing rapids. "Still, I need to know they're alright. They're my friends, you know... the only ones I've ever had. And we've grown real close. Sonic, especially, I've been exploring the world with him for... gosh, most of a year, now."  
Roxanna frowned. "Yes. Yes, I can see how they are important to you. I have had many close friends, and I know how it hurts inside when they are lost to you. You must forgive me for being hesitant to trust strangers. I extended the warmest greeting to the evil one, Kinnos Sharpe, when he first came to our lands, and he betrayed us all in the worst way. It was most offensive that he and his associate betrayed us with our own ways. This is how it must have been to live in the time of the Bloodmongers. Porcupines against porcupines."  
"His associate? You mean Rasputan?"  
Roxanna nodded. "A very able druid, fluent in both the Old Magicks and the New Magicks, the ones known as Technologies. We did not see much of him. One night, he came to our village with a magical wounding-stick and took one of our villagers into the jungle. Neither of them have been seen since that time."  
"Magical wounding-stick?" Espio asked, cocking an eyebrow.  
"Yes. He pointed it towards one of our warriors. It roared loudly, and a wound opened up in the victim's shoulder. A wound that refuses to heal."  
"A gun," Espio explained, "There'll be a bullet in that guy's arm, you'll wanna take it out, it should heal then."  
"I will inform the elders. Thank you."  
Espio stood, and picked up the rune. "Well, we probably should get going before something tries to eat us. Let's follow the river, maybe we'll catch up to Sonic and Niles."  
They followed the roaring water for a long time. It continued to speed up, and the jungle itself began to open up and let some light in.  
"We're coming out of the darklands..." Roxanna said with some confusion.  
The trees eventually broke away altogether, and only sparse foliage stood in their way. There was an enormous thunderous noise behind them. Espio and Roxanna pushed through, and sunlight bathed them on the other side.  
They were standing atop a cliff. The river flowed over the rocks and toppled over the side in the biggest waterfall Espio had ever seen. Hundreds of metres below, the ocean swallowed it all in a foaming white cloud.  
"Okay... what happened?" the chameleon asked.  
"I think," Roxanna replied, and looked back into the jungle, "I think we have been following the wrong river."

XX

"Oh dear dear dear," Niles muttered, "We're never going to see ourselves out of this hideous jungle, are we."  
"Not with that attitude," Sonic replied, "Here. Let's rest for a moment."  
They sat together on a large rock on the bank of the river. It wasn't a river now so much as a stream. Clear and fresh, a school of small silver fish swam up to their feet.  
"I must say, I've never seen creatures like the ones we've seen today," Niles said. He looked at the little fish, which seemed to be encased in armour rather than scales.  
"Hey, check this out," Sonic said, and Niles looked over to see the hedgehog parting the bushes beside him and looking into them intently.  
There was a nest built into the ground, constructed of bark and other organic debris. A clutch of three enormous eggs was inside, and the remains of a fourth, which had hatched.  
"My goodness," Niles said in awe, and leaned in for a closer look. The eggs were dark and speckled, with leathery shells. "What do you think laid them? They're bigger than an ostrich's!"  
"Naaaaaang!" cried an upset voice, and both travellers jerked their heads quickly to its source. Standing beside the river on stout legs was a creature about the size of a pig, but it was covered in grey scales and had a beak. "Naaaaang! Nang!"  
"Oh great cripes!" Niles exclaimed, and crawled further up the rock, "Is it like one of those.. those... Wibble-Kee things?"  
"No.." Sonic replied. He slowly leaned closer to the animal, which backed away from him but continued to complain. "I don't think this little guy wants to hurt us.. he's just a baby, he must have hatched out of that egg."  
"Naaang! Nnng!"  
"Don't go near it!" Niles warned, "I mean... just in case... you understand."  
"Yeah," Sonic replied, and leaned back onto the rock. The little creature growled a bit, galloped back and forth, and finally out of sight.  
"You know, I think I've worked out this place," Sonic said. His head throbbed a bit and he frowned as he put a palm to his forehead.  
"Well I'd like to hear your explanation, because I'm beginning to think I'm going mad," the fox replied.  
"I had a friend once," Sonic explained, "Kinda like you, actually. A smart friend, named Bosley. He knew a lot of things that the rest of us didn't. I mean, when I lived on the street. He liked to talk, and people pretended to be interested, I think, but I really was interested, because I'd hardly ever been out of the city and I was always dying to know more about the world. I remember him telling me that Mobius was once covered in creatures much different to the ones we see today, but they died out when they couldn't survive anymore, for whatever reason. You know, climates change, continents drift..."  
"Yes, I know the specifics of natural extinction, thank you."  
"Yeah anyway, but the biggest reason was that different animals were coming through all the time, eating their food, changing their environment. Mobians have done this the most, but it's been happening naturally since time began. And Bosley told me that once the planet was ruled by huge _lizards_."  
"Are you suggesting that these things are extinct animals?" Niles asked, "What are they doing here? Why didn't the bloody things just die like they did everywhere else?"  
"That's just the thing," Sonic replied, "I don't really know. But... this island has some kind of really weird properties to it. I mean, it's almost invisible from the outside world, or something like that. Maybe whatever it is that killed these creatures off the rest of the planet just never reached here. This whole place is like a living fossil from prehistory. The porcupines came here thousands of years ago and they co-exist with these things. I guess there just aren't any animals brave enough to go near the porcupine settlement.. but when they do.."  
"They think they're pixies," Niles said, "Or faeries, for goodness sakes."  
"Yeah."  
"Yes, well all I know is that it's very dangerous here. It seems that we only visit terribly dangerous places. Like that settlement in the desert where everyone was trying to kill us. And that awful Arack town. I say, dear hedgehog, one day you're going to get us all slaughtered."  
"If I do, I owe you a cola," Sonic replied.  
"Naaaaang!" The little animal returned, shouting his complaints at the two of them.  
"I guess we should get away from his little brothers and sisters," Sonic suggested. They picked themselves up off the rock and continued to follow the stream.  
"Hey Niles?"  
"Yes?"  
Sonic cleared his throat. "Would you consider us friends?"  
Niles appeared a little uncomfortable, and Sonic could see he was choosing his words carefully. "I have developed a fondness for your thrilling lifestyle, despite your frequent reckless endangerment of my life, and I do... enjoy your company... most of the time. Yes, I would call you a friend and a companion if you so approve."  
"That's a heck of a long-winded way to say yes, Niles. You're a strange, strange fellow."  
"Why do you ask, dear hedgehog?"  
"Because there are tough times ahead. I can feel it. The problem is, I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be able to tackle this alone. I'll try, if I have to, but I'd like it very much if you and Espio were to stick with me for the last stretch. I know that you've been having second thoughts about this, recently."  
"Oh, that's just because... you know... It seemed you were about to lead us directly into Arack territory, good fellow."  
"The thing is, I trust you guys. I really do. And both of you have qualities that, let's face it, I don't have in real abundant supply. I'm a pretty gung-ho guy, which works for me in some situations, but I dunno where I'd be right now if not for Espio's practicality and insight... or your shrewdness. I might be rotting in the desert being picked at by vultures, or on the end of Zero's pike. I trust you guys to be behind me, and I'd like to know that you trust me, too. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I know I'm leading you two in dangerous directions, and I'd like to know that... I dunno... you have faith in me."  
Niles smiled and lay a fatherly hand on Sonic's shoulder. Sonic knew that the fox would appreciate being told that he was a helpful and necessary person, that he was important, and it eased an uncomfortable conversation.  
"I'm with you, my lad, for as long as you desire my services, you just call on Niles Wilkinson-Price."  
"That's good to hear, Niles," Sonic said, "And if you do trust me, I'd like you to tell me something."  
"Absolutely."  
"I'd like you to tell me why it is that you hate the Arack Empire so much."  
Niles instantly chuckled uneasily, restless again and agitated. "Oh, you don't want to hear about that horrible empire."  
"Yes, I do. Because it's affecting our quest, it's making you distrustful."  
"Oh, everybody dislikes the Arack Empire, dear hedgehog, they are a horrible people."  
"It's more than that. It's something personal. You heard Alastrine say that you shouldn't hate people for what they are, only what they do. And they've done something to you, haven't they?"  
Niles sighed and rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger.  
"My home," he said, "The city where I was born and bred, my _home_, fell under Arack control several years ago. They simply take what they want and pay no mind to anybody who speaks against them. When the Empire takes a city, everything changes. Those wretches are always working, always so industrious they are, and they want you to work as well. They force you, tell you that you're working toward the glory of a better world and that it's only fair that you should do as much as they do. However, they treat you like an Arack, and if you aren't a spider it's impossible. They can work for days without food or water or rest, they can lift more, do everything faster and better than the rest of us. They don't feed you, they just work you until you collapse in exhaustion, and then they call you lazy and beat you." The fox shook his head, and Sonic saw that he was trembling slightly. "My brother," he said, "was forced to work in the underground, in the mining tunnels. He couldn't handle it. He was killed in what they referred to as an 'accident resulting from complications regarding industrial protocol'. He was the only family I had, you understand, and after I lost him I escaped that monsterous place and travelled north. I found Stratosphereon and settled there, having seen that it was a lovely, peaceful place where nobody ever raised a fuss. And that's that."  
"I'm sorry," Sonic said, and he put a hand on Niles' shoulder. "I can see why you didn't want to do all this, to leave the city. I pushed you into it."  
"Oh, pish-posh. Never mind all that. I suppose a fellow shouldn't run from his problems. All this nonsense about porcupines and evil twins and what not, it's probably been a blessing in disguise. Look!" His expression brightened as though somebody had thrown a switch. "I can see light! Look! Up ahead!"  
"Hey, yeah.. it's coming from the left. If we're going to follow this stream, though, we have to curve back to the right, back into the really dark part of the jungle. I just hope this really is leading us in the right direction. It would help if Roxanna was here with us. Gosh, I hope Cinos didn't get them..."  
"_Sonic_! What the blazers is _that_?" Niles shrieked, almost jumping into the water. He was pointing up ahead, into the light. Something was moving around, and it was something very big.  
"I... don't know..." the hedgehog replied.  
The monster came into view, moving very slowly. It bellowed loudly, a sound so low that Sonic could feel it in his gut. But it didn't attack them, it was simply moving towards the stream.  
"I think it's one of the parents of that little creature back there," Sonic said. Indeed, the animal looked like a huge, fatter version of the baby creature. It was as big as an elephant, and it had a single horn attached to its face above its beak.  
"A rhino-elephant," Sonic chuckled, "A rhinophant."  
It wasn't either of these animals, though - it was covered in scales, an enormous reptile of sorts, and had a short reptillian tail. The rhinophant dipped its head to the stream and drank from the water.  
As they watched, more of the animals emerged to drink from the stream. There were about five of them, now.  
"We'll have to go around them," Sonic said, "Keep quiet."  
"Do you suppose they eat meat?" Niles whispered, "I have no intention of ending my life as an _hors d'oeuvre_."  
"I don't know," Sonic replied, "Let's not find out the hard way. Shh."  
As they moved, the jungle thinned out and led to a clearing. The grass grew up to their knees. Sonic gasped and pointed ahead of them - the clearing was very wide and miles long, and the entire area was populated with rhinophants. There were perhaps a hundred of them in a single great herd, grazing.  
"They eat grass!" Sonic exclaimed, "Like livestock!"  
Every so often, one of the creatures bellowed loudly, but none of them seemed too threatened by Niles or Sonic, although Niles was suitably threatened by them.  
"Can we get a move on?" he pleaded.  
"Yeah, I guess so," Sonic replied, "Hey, what's that?"  
Somebody was running toward them.

XXI

"To tell you the truth, I think all of this is nonsense," Espio said, shaking his head.  
Roxanna cocked an eyebrow. "Oh?"  
"Yeah... I mean, it's all superstition. Magical rocks, parallel universes, all that fairy tale stuff. I have no doubt this Cinos character is bad news, and he probably believes he can do all this, which is bad enough, but come on... the powers of a god? That's like me saying that Mobius is flat and the moon is a giant cookie. The guy we're chasing is just a lunatic who likes to kill people to relieve the stress of being frothingly insane. I know the type, I've lived among them all my life."  
The two of them were walking into the dark of the jungle again, in as straight a line as possible, as far as it was possible to tell.  
"With the power of Mazsha, anything is possible," the porcupine said.  
"Well, that's what you believe," Espio replied, and shrugged. "Just realise that it's only one of many opinions."  
"And what is your opinion?"  
Espio laughed. "Oh no, there are two things you definitely never discuss with friends, and those are politics and religion. I don't want to offend you."  
"Go ahead," Roxanna said, "I implore you. I am interested."  
"I just think... Well, that God is an excuse, that's all. Sometimes when people don't know how to explain or justify something, they invoke some deity to tie up the strings. God is the name that people give to their greed. When you want to control people, tell them what they can and cannot do, placate them, nothing works better than the implication that there's some guy who is invisible and watching you all the time and will torture you for eternity if you don't act in a specific way."  
"I think I understand. I believe that the gods created mobiankind, whereas you believe that mobiankind created the gods."  
"Yeah, something like that. I've seen a lot of really horrible things committed in the name of God. Where I come from, they kill people for no reason other than that they say some old guy on a cloud told them to. It's too convenient, this invisible thing with infinite power that is the answer to every question you can think up. If you need an excuse to do something terrible, it's always available. I just can't see how religion could ever be a good thing when it causes so much misery."  
"Tell me though, would these people not have done these things if they could not use the gods as an excuse?"  
"They'd probably find another reason. Jerks will be jerks."  
"Then would you say that the gods were indeed the cause of this violence? Or its victim?"  
"I've offended you."  
Roxanna looked at him with a thoughtful expression. "I am not offended. I am secure in my faith. I am merely interested, for I have not come across anybody who shares your belief. My people do not question the existence of the gods, of Mazsha. It is the people of the mainland who have forgotten her. That, I believe, is why the world has descended into such violence."  
"That's just what I mean. You don't question."  
"I see no reason for doubt. I can see the magic of Mazsha in everything. In our very existence. How were we created, if not by the gods?"  
"It's circular, see," Espio explained, "If you ask that, you have to ask who created the gods. I figure that I can't know anything beyond what my senses tell me." He pointed at a large rock covered in moss and ferns. "What would you say if I asked you whether there were beetles living under that rock?"  
Roxanna looked at it for a moment, as though she was trying to figure out a puzzle. Espio found this amusing.  
"I cannot say," she told him.  
"Right, there might be or there might not. You can't tell. I just see no reason to invest my faith in the existence of something I can't detect. What's the point?"  
"Do you never sense that there may be more to life than you can explain?"  
Espio looked down at the rune he carried, the stone that they called the Rune of Nine. It was he himself who had cracked the secret of the five Runes, that they somehow contained a power that affected people's minds. He thought it insane, but all the evidence pointed toward it and he was sure it was the truth. Although he confided a suspicion that it was the result of some kind of mild radiation poisoning.  
The Awakening he had shared with Sonic in the Pit of the Chameleon Cabal, however, was much more difficult for him to explain.  
"I've seen a lot of weird stuff," he said, "I'll admit that. This journey just seems to get weirder."  
They walked in silence for a few minutes, but then Roxanna spoke:  
"If the number of beetles living under that rock was as important to me as the love of Mazsha, I believe I would lift the rock."  
Espio laughed and nodded. A few moments later, however, he stopped in his tracks, and put a hand on Roxanna's shoulder to stop her as well. When she looked at him in confusion, he pointed straight ahead. His expression was hard. She tried to see what he was pointing at.  
"Oh... oh no..."  
There was somebody lying amongst the foliage, a porcupine. The body was motionless, one eye open and he other closed. A line of dried blood ran from the corner of his mouth to the ground. Animals had been picking at his remains, and very little was left of him from the waist down.  
Roxanna ran to the body and kneeled beside it, trailing a hand across his cheek.  
"Did you know him?" Espio asked.  
"Yes," Roxanna replied, "He was Gregory. I told you earlier about the stranger with the wounding-stick who took one of our own into the jungle. This was he."  
"Poor guy.. looks like he put up an awful fight."  
"He was a dear friend," the porcupine said softly, and when she closed her eyes a couple of tears trailed down her cheeks. "May you rest comfortably, my friend."  
"Why do you reckon he was brought out here?"  
"I cannot say. The motives are a mystery."  
"What did he do? I mean, did he have any skills?"  
"Of course. Gregory was an alchemist, as well as a skilled hunter."  
"Maybe he was brought here to help Cinos and Rasputan find the Rune."  
"That is possible. But strange that they should remain in these lands for so long... Gregory has been dead for quite a while, by the look."  
"This might not be the best time to bring this up," Espio said, "But I think he was dragged here. Or at least his body." The chameleon motioned to a niche beside the body, where the remains of several other strange creatures, large and small, were crammed together, in differing states of decomposition.  
"What is this?" Roxanna asked, "I have never seen such a crude and violent collection of corpses, even in the Grand Hunter's tent."  
"Food," Espio replied, "Rations stored away. I think we're in somebody's home, and they're sure as heck not vegetarians."  
"Wibble-_kee_!"  
The chameleon and porcupine jerked around to see one of the Wibble-Kees standing behind them. It bobbed its head like a parrot.  
"And I think that's 'honey I'm home' in their language," Espio said, "Come on, we have to get outta here.  
They bolted, Espio keeping a tight hold on Roxanna's arm so that they didn't part. Their speed was limited because of the heavy stone Espio had to carry.  
Before long, they could hear sounds of persuit behind them. The familiar call of "Wibble-_craaank_!" from the leader of the monsters. Neither of the pursued looked back.  
After a short time, they came to another great pile of deadfall, intertwined with vines and shrubs.  
"They can't climb this stuff!" Espio exclaimed, "Quickly, let's get over it!"  
He tossed the rune over the mass, and heard the thump as it landed on the other side. Then the two of them clawed for a grip. The deadfall was laced with thorns and sharp twigs, and some blood was shed as they scrambled to escape. The Wibble-Craank snapped at their ankles, clawing at the fallen wood. Roxanna shrieked as the creature latched onto her foot with its beak, and she kicked it in the head with the other. It barked and released her.  
"Come on, hurry up!" Espio shouted. He reached the top of the pile and jumped down the other side... but the ground was heavily sloped, and he started rolling as soon as he touched down. There were rocks and other hard objects on the way down, but he managed to roll into a kind of ball to protect himself until he stopped moving. Shortly afterward, Roxanna followed, sliding on her rear.  
"That... hurt.." the chameleon moaned. He was bleeding from the arms a bit, and from one knee. He grunted as he picked himself up. Roxanna was relatively unharmed, but she had a nasty gash on her ankle from where the creature had bitten her.  
"Are you okay?" Espio asked.  
"Yes," she replied, "I think so. You are bleeding."  
"I know.. I guess the deadfall roughed me up a bit."  
"You shall need to dress those wounds."  
Espio cocked an eyebrow and looked around. They had fallen into a sparsely covered woodland area, and mid-afternoon light shone through the canopy. "With what? Nothing but trees here."  
"And that is all we need," she replied, "These are bloodleaf trees. See how the tops of the leaves are green, but the undersides are red? When the leaves fall to the ground, the green disappears. The green is poison, but the red is life."  
"What are you talking about?" Espio asked.  
Roxanna began to gather leaves which had fallen from the trees overhead. When she had gathered a decent pile of them, she stripped a piece of bark from one of the trunks. As Espio watched, she severed a low hanging branch with a crisp snap. A thick white sap began to ooze out of the connected end, and she held the bark and leaves under it, mixing them together with a stick, pausing every few seconds to spit into it. Then, she used the same stick with another, and furiously rubbed them together over the mixture.  
"I don't understand what you're-" Espio began, but he stopped when the pile of leaves and sap burst into flame and crackled away. After a few seconds, the flames died down and doused themselves, and what remained was something like a red paste. She stirred it around with the stick for a second, and then brought it to Espio. "Hold out your arm."  
He did as he was told, and she used her fingers to apply the mixture to his wounds.  
"Ouch!" he exclaimed, "That really stings..."  
"The pain will not last. This will stop the bleeding and prevent infection. You will heal faster, as well." After she was finished with him, she began applying the mixture to her ankle.  
"You know a lot about this," Espio said.  
"Yes. My father was an alchemist. He died last year from a cancer of the insides. He taught me much about these things. We should be away from here before the demons of the jungle find us."  
"Oh wait... the rune!" Espio said. He looked all about the place, and finally saw the stone lodged up against a tree. He picked it up, and they wandered through the trees towards the light.  
About half an hour passed before they emerged into some kind of field. It was an enormous clearing, covered in grass that grew to knee-height.  
"Uh, Roxanna?" Espio asked, "What the heck are those things?"  
She didn't have an answer. The clearing was home to dozens, perhaps hundreds of enormous grey beasts. They were eating the grass.  
"I do not know," the porcupine said, "But there is your friend, Sonic."  
It was true. Sonic and Niles were standing together on the other side of the clearing. Espio waved his arms and shouted, but they didn't seem to notice, so he began running towards them, laughing in excitement.

XXII

"Boy am I glad to see you guys," Sonic said, when Espio arrived panting.  
"What luck!" the chameleon exclaimed, "We just had another run-in with our lizard friends. I think we ought to push on before they find us again. Hey, what are those animals?"  
"Rhinophants," Sonic explained, and winked.  
"Of course," Espio replied, and rolled his eyes.  
"This place is going to be the death of me," Niles said from behind the group, "When we get back I'm going to take a bath and not get out of it until Christmas."  
"Maybe we'll just leave you here," Espio grumbled, "Sonic, can you please take this dumb rock? It's murder running around with it."  
Sonic was reminded about the rune, and looked down at the symbol on its surface. He suddenly remembered about his headache, and put a hand to his forehead as he scrunched his eyes up.  
"You okay Sonic?" Espio asked. Sonic was about to reply, but he saw movement out of the corner of his eye and looked towards it. There was something amongst the bushes back towards the river. A blue face... the eyes blinked, and then the figure backed out of sight.  
"Cinos..." Sonic whispered, "He's still watching us."  
"_Naaaaaaaaaaanghhh!_" came a booming, thunderous cry from one of the rhinophants. All the other animals looked up and towards the source of the noise. Then they all began to complain, and started moving away quickly.  
"Think we spooked 'em?" Espio asked.  
The sound was drowned out by a horrendous roar that cracked through the jungle like a whip. The small group had to protect their ears, and the rhinophants were stampeding away, now.  
"I'd say _that_ spooked them," Sonic replied, "And I think we should get out of the way before one of those things runs us over."  
They moved to the safety of the trees and watched the stampede of the giant animals until not one could be seen. Then there was silence, apart from the occasional bird squawk.  
"All this time running away from the little snapping-things," Espio said, "And I forgot all about the big roaring thing."  
"The Wood Devil knows we are here," Roxanna replied, "And he is angered. We must proceed with great caution, or turn back."  
"No turning back," Sonic said, "Not before Cinos does. Come on, lets get back to the river."  
The jungle only grew darker as they proceeded along the trickling river. There was the feeling of many eyes watching them, but there was no animal life in plain sight. Whatever lived down here lived every day as dark as night.  
"How do we even know it's still daytime?" Niles asked, "I don't want to make the trip back at night, you can sodding well stick that idea up your jumper."  
"Because we were in the sun just twenty minutes ago, and it was right above us," Sonic replied, "But if you don't hurry up and keep up the pace, it _will_ be night before we get back. And none of us want that."  
"And we'll blame you," Espio added.  
Niles didn't need any more encouragement.  
After a while, they stopped to rest for a short time. Niles, Espio and Roxanna took drinks from the stream while Sonic, not thirsty, stood about nearby and looked around. Something glittered amongst the trees... a light? The hedgehog squinted to see what was happening... there seemed to be a flame in the darkness. In the dim light, several figures were moving about. A small porcupine tribe perhaps? Maybe they could be of some help. Sonic thought about raising the alarm to his friends, but any noise might scare the tribe away.. so he crept towards it instead, intending to introduce himself without scaring them too much.  
He wandered into the darkness as quietly as he could, and stopped a moment to observe what the porcupines were doing. They seemed to be holding some kind of ceremony, the fire was built around something, propped up on a rock. It was a rune!  
"Hey," Sonic said, stepping to where they could see him, "I'm a friend, we-" He stopped. The jungle had plunged into total darkness the moment he began speaking. The fire completely vanished, and the sounds of the porcupines ceased.  
"Whoa," he sighed, "Hello? Hello? I'm a friend, I... hello?" His eyes adjustted to the darkness, and he could see that there was nothing there. In fact, there didn't even seem to be any trace of a fire, or that anybody had been around recently. The rock remained, but there was no rune against it, and the ground around it wasn't even dry, let alone singed.  
"Weird," Sonic said, "I must be losing it.." He turned around, and cried out in shock when he came face to face with someone standing inches behind him.  
It was Cinos. The evil hedgehog chuckled a bit, and took a large bite out of an apple he was holding.  
"Cinos!" Sonic shouted, "You didn't think you could hide from me, did you? Where's Rasputan? What are you up to?"  
"You don't get it yet, do you, my dim brother? You haven't worked it out yet."  
"What does that _mean_?" Sonic demanded, "Stop your games and make sense!"  
"Listen," Cinos explained, "You can beat the snake with bravery, but not me. You can only hate me, then fall for me, then it's all over, Sonic." He began to back away into the bushes.  
"Don't you run away from me!" Sonic threatened. Cinos continued to move away, but as he did, he mouthed the words "All over," and smiled.  
"Sonic?" Espio said, "What are you doing here? We followed the sound of your voice..."  
"It's Cinos," Sonic replied, "Stop him!" But when he turned back to his evil twin, there was nothing but rustling bushes.  
"What, over there?" Espio asked, "Maybe we can catch him!"  
"No," Sonic replied glumly, "I can't catch him. Not unless we strike it lucky and something bites his leg off."  
"Oh my..." Niles was looking into the trees as if he saw something that disgusted him. He scrunched his face up and looked like he might throw up.  
"What's wrong?" Espio asked, and followed his gaze. His eyes brightened and then narrowed. "Oh... ohh..."  
Sonic couldn't see anything, and frustratedly pulled some branches aside out of his way. A stench filled the jungle like nothing he'd ever smelled before, and he had to squint for a moment to recognise exactly what he was looking at.  
At first it looked like a pile of uncooked meat, but it was dripping liquids that were unidentifiable, as well as a lot of pink blood. And snapped bones from a ribcage... they were staring at the torn-up carcass of a rhinophant. Its chest and gut were one gaping hole.  
"What the heck happened to that thing?" Espio asked, "The Wibble-Kees? Man, that's major gross..."  
"Not them," Sonic replied, "Those critters couldn't bring one of these down. This looks like one single bite. Something's just come down, bitten off a nice fleshy wad of rhinophant, and taken off."  
"But.. what could do that?" Espio asked.  
"I think you know the answer to that. The Wood Devil is hungry."

XXIII

They continued to follow the river, but in uneasy silence. Nobody spoke for the longest time, and the slightest noise in the jungle was enough to startle them. The only one who seemed all together was Roxanna, although she was probably more used to strange noises than any of them, having lived all her life amongst them.  
Sonic broke the silence, his curiosity overwhelming him. "Espio, what's that muck all over your body? What have you been doing?"  
"This?" the chameleon asked, "Oh, this is just some stuff Roxanna smeared on me, I got cut up, and she says this'll help it heal."  
"Oh... Roxanna, you're a doctor too?"  
"Not a healer, no," she replied, "But my father was an alchemist, and I learned much of the nature of herbs that grow around us."  
"It kinda tingles," Espio added, "She can make fire out of just sticks, too."  
"That's a neat trick," Sonic said.  
"Not as neat as this," Espio replied, and made himself change colour from purple to green. Roxanna gasped and looked at him with newfound fascination. "How did you do that?"  
"Easy," Espio replied, changing back, "I'm a chameleon."  
"You are what?"  
"Cham-ee-lee-on." He pronounced it slowly.  
"I know not of the names of your strange races," Roxanna replied, "I see that I have much to learn."  
Niles made a scoffing sound. "_Strange?_ I object! My parents were very well bred, as am I. There's no outside influence on my family line, we have been foxes since the beginning of time. None of that messy interbreeding that goes on these days, making all sorts of crossed strains..."  
"Are there any of our kind among you?" Roxanna asked, "In your world, I mean."  
"What, you mean porcupines?" Sonic asked, to which she nodded.  
Sonic shook his head. "Actually, your existence is somewhat of a dispute among the academic world. Your ancestors didn't leave terribly much evidence behind, and this island seems to have eluded discovery for all this time, despite the fact that there are boats and planes all over the place now."  
"Yes, we have been fortunate. The magic of the ancients keeps us hidden from the world."  
The river was more like a stream, now, and running out of potential quickly. The unstated concern among them was the possibility that it was another dud river that wouldn't lead them to the rune.  
"Are you quite positive you know where we're going?" Niles asked, turning around to address Roxanna, who was the furthest behind, "Because I don't want to get lost in-"  
A long time passed, and the fox didn't finish his sentence. He had stopped walking, as well, and just stared in the direction opposite to where they were going.  
"What's wrong, buddy?" Espio asked.  
Niles' lip trembled. "Sweet, merciful..."  
The other three turned around. At first there was only darkness behind them, as there was ahead of them. The only sound was that of the river trickling past them. But suddenly there was movement... nothing in particular was moving, it was everything. The darkness itself seemed to waver and move.  
A few moments of staring revealed the problem was an illusion of the eyes. What they were staring into wasn't actually the darkness of the jungle, it was something like a solid black wall. Very slowly, the wall was moving to the right, and it seemed endlessly long. They only saw a small part of it at a time, between the trees. Sonic followed his gaze along its length, and saw that it stretched across the river from the other side, and away into darkness.  
"What are we looking at?" he asked, but nobody gave a coherent answer. A bright, vibrant red appeared on the moving wall. Sonic realised that it wasn't a wall so much as a gigantic tube, and there were bright red stripes all along it. To the right, it flowed upward into the trees.  
"I don't know what that is," Espio said, turning back around, "But I think we need t-" the end of this sentence was a hoarse scream, and the chameleon fell over and scrambled back.  
Ahead of them, in their desired direction, was something enormous and bright red with only lashings of black. It descended from above and settled less than a hundred feet from where they stood. An enormous snake's head, bigger than a truck. But instead of fangs, it had a mouth full of pointed teeth.  
"The Wood Devil," Roxanna choked, "We have met our end."

XXIV

Sonic realised instantly that the snake from his dream was the one he saw before him, only this was possibly the biggest living creature in existence. An orange tongue darted out of its mouth, and its eyes flexed.  
Roxanna was on her knees in some kind of distress. At last she began shouting at the creature, "Mighty protector of the jungle! We seek your mercy! We throw ourselves upon it! The order of the world is in grave danger, we must see about the safety of the fabled rune you protect!"  
"I do't think he's going to listen to reason," Sonic said, "He's looking at us like his only thought is who to eat first. We have to get out of here, _now_."  
Espio was the first to take off running, under the arch that the Devil's body made in the trees, and Sonic and Niles were next. Sonic had to grab Roxanna's arm to drag her with them. The snake didn't seem interested in persuing them.  
"Maybe it's not hungry after all," Espio said. But ahead of them, a giant black coil dropped from above, forcing them all to screech to a halt, and the head burst out of the trees from somewhere else, again settling in front of them, content to stare. The group ran in yet another direction, but the serpent's coils were everywhere, blocking them from everywhere. They were surrounded completely, and the head followed them everywhere, bright red and monsterously frightening.  
Still they ran, in sheer panic, and only a hurried grasping of each others' limbs prevented the group from scattering. They came to the river again, to a large patch of mud, and they all slipped in it, falling over and laying sprawled in a heap. The head returned, a low growl in the monster's throat. It opened its toothy mouth and roared, the sound they had grown to know so well ever since they arrived on the island.  
Espio ran to a pile of deadfall at the edge of the bog. He picked up a stick and weilded it threateningly, although it looked pitiful before the massive beast.  
The Wood Devil stared at the chameleon, almost curiously, and then struck. Its mouth opened wide to swallow him up. Sonic scrambled to rescue his friend, but slipped with a dull splat, and could only close his eyes and yell Espio's name, prepared for the unavoidable.  
But it didn't happen.  
Sonic opened his eyes and saw that the monster had stopped mid-strike. Espio was standing before it, trembling visibly. He had dropped his stick and, perhaps in an instinctive self-pretection mechanism, he had changed his colour to that of the mud. And the snake was confused.  
"That's it," Sonic said aloud, and Roxanna and Niles gave him full attention as he spoke, "This thing must not be able to see very well... cover yourself in mud! It can see you because of your colour!"  
They all squirmed around in the mud, covering themselves with it from head to toe. The Wood Devil roared again and hissed, infuriated. Its coils began to close in, from every direction they came. Branches and tree trunks snapped as the serpent constricted.  
"_Now what_?" Niles screamed, "It can't see us so it'll bloody well crush us to death!"  
"Not if I have anything to say about it," Sonic replied, "I've gone head to head with bigger things than this. The Wood Wimp is going to rue the day he messed with Sonic the Hedgehog!"  
"Sonic!" came Roxanna's shout, and he looked to her. She was amongst the deadfall, and she had one stick in her hand, frantically rubbing it against another. It wasn't long at all before the dry sticks burst into flames. She snapped off a flaming branch and handed it to Sonic.  
The snake had a fix on him, now. Its head darted around to watch Sonic weave with the flaming stick. The tongue lashed out twice, and then it struck.  
Sonic leaped into the air as the snake head came darting towards him, and with some skillful aiming, he landed on top of its snout. The head lashed around, snarling, but he dug his knees into the beast's head and kept a hold on its nostrils.  
The Wood Devil stopped jerking about, and opened its mouth in another roar. Sonic slid down the open snout to the top of the beast's skull, between its eyes. The serpent silenced itself for a moment, both eyes crossed trying to find Sonic on top of it.  
"Eat this," he said, and he leaned over and stabbed the flaming branch into the monster's giant eye.  
The serpent wailed in pain and lashed harder than ever, throwing Sonic off. The hedgehog landed in the river. The snake's head fled to the treetops, allowing an escape through its barricade, and the trapped group of three made immediate use of it. They ran to Sonic, and Espio helped him out of the water.  
"That was the greatest thing I've ever seen!" the chameleon exclaimed. Sonic laughed and shook himself off. The sounds of the furious monster became faint as it slithered away from them. "Just call me king of the monsters," Sonic said.  
"Whoa," Espio returned, "And will you look at _that_!"  
The forest became lighter as a break in the canopy allowed light to filter through. The river veered away and trickled into a small stream, and beyond the point where it turned away, there was a clearing.  
In the clearing was an enormous temple.

XXV

It rose up from the ground like a mountainous pyramid, an enormous ruin made of dark green stones, covered in vines and weeds. It was silent and foreboding, standing solid in the centre of so much danger, as if it were the axis of everything they had come to face so far. In a way, it was - this was where the stones were forged, the Runes were created and all of reality split in two. Once one of the most important sites in the universe, it was now forgotten. The group bathed in complete awe of it for several minutes before they realised the clock was still ticking.  
"This is a most incredible sight," Roxanna whispered. Her eyes seemed to glow with wonder. "It is against our very nature to build with stone. We construct nothing that can not return to the soil and decompose. This is amazing... but against our nature."  
"Maybe you didn't build it," Sonic suggested, "Maybe it was already ancient before the porcupines got here. It looks that old."  
"Yes, well whoever built it they did a mighty shoddy job, didn't they," Niles said, "Look, it's bloody well got holes all through it. I'm not going in there, it'll fall down and crush me to pieces."  
He was right. Entire sections of wall seemed to have crumbled away, although the remains couldn't be seen on the ground. In fact, it almost seemed physically impossible for the thing to remain standing. Looking at this building was like looking at a pyramid that stood on its tip, irrational in a way that hurt the mind.  
Espio wandered around to try and get a better view. He'd walked a couple of feet before he stopped, expressions of surprise and confusion creeping onto his face. He walked around a bit more, and then stopped again, just staring at the massive temple with his mouth hanging dumbly open.  
"Sonic... come here..."  
The hedgehog turned and began walking to where the chameleon stood, but Espio held up a hand to stop him.  
"No... come here, but watch the temple as you walk."  
"Watch the temple?" Sonic asked, but he did so. Soon he, too, was confusedly trying to figure out what he was seeing.  
"That's got to be some kind of illusion... I don't understand..."  
"What in Pete's name are you talking about?" Niles asked. Sonic told him to try it, to walk around the temple and watch what it did.  
At first it seemed like a bizarre optical illusion, but all things seemed to confirm that appearances were, amazingly, factual. As the angle of perception changed, whole parts of the temple seemed to completely vanish before the eyes. Pillars, sections of walls, just disappeared like they evaporated. But, just as amazingly, other parts seemed to appear from nowhere. Holes in the walls filled with bricks, whole sections were blocked from view as walls appeared where there were no walls before. The entire construction shifted and changed like an image in a kaleidoscope.  
"What in God's name...?" Sonic asked, "This is unreal."  
"I am not going inside that building," Niles repeated.  
"Well, you can take your chances in the funhouse, or you can stay out here and tango with our old pal the Wood Devil," Sonic replied, "It's your choice. I'm going inside."  
There was an open portal in the centre of the temple's wall, accessed by a flight of stone steps. Beyond the doorway lay a long, spacious tunnel. Espio was making fascinated gasps of delight, Niles was trembling in quiet fear, but Sonic and Roxanna were out in front, utterly silent and prepared for surprises. They found that most of the temple was completely hollow - either that, or the stone that constructed its insides was partially or fully invisible. The tunnel seemed to drop off a couple of feet ahead, but it became visible as they walked. A glance behind them revealed that it was disappearing in the same manner on the other end.  
Eventually, they came to the centre of the ruin. It was an enormous room, seemingly big enough to fit a whole city block inside. And underneath them was a pit that didn't look like it had a bottom.  
No ground appeared over it when they approached, so Sonic held his hands out to stop the rest of the party. They stared into nothingness.  
"Nothing," Niles said. His voice faintly echoed. "Fantastic, just wonderful."  
"No," Sonic repied, "Look."  
Over the centre of the pit, there was a chunk of jagged rock just floating. The top of it was a platform, and there was something shining on top of it.  
"But that's no good," Espio said, "We have no way of getting all the way over there. Unless you feel like jumping halfway over this bottomless pit. You a longjump champion back home, Sonic?"  
"This is indeed a problematic situation," Roxanna admitted, "The ancients... the builders of this temple, whoever embarked upon such a feat, did not want it disturbed. That is why the Wood Devil was set here to protect this place."  
"See, I don't think so," Sonic said, "That platform all the way out there isn't just floating in limbo. It's fixed in place... there must be a floor across this pit, we just can't see it. Now, it could be over the whole pit, or it could just be a narrow bridge."  
"Well how do we _find_ the sodding thing?" Niles asked.  
Roxanna reached into her hair and pulled a red ribbon out of her locks. She walked to the edge of the pit and tossed it out in front of her.  
The small strip of cloth floated down, and landed on an invisible platform. It cast no shadow, but just flattened out on what looked like thin air, and suspended.  
"Okay, we know that's safe," Espio said, "But how do we know that between here and there is also safe?"  
"Well, I guess we just get down on our hands and knees and crawl to it," Sonic replied, and proceeded to do so.  
Nobody followed, at first. He went out alone, crawling, and soon crawled right out onto nothing. He was suddenly filled with a great fear - it was strange, although he could feel solid ground under him, he could see an infinite fall beneath him, a plunge into darkness. It felt like gravity was temporarily out of order, and any second it would kick in again. He bit his tongue, closed his eyes, and continued crawling very slowly until he felt the ribbon under his hand.  
Sonic turned back to the others, one eye open. "Follow me," he said, "And keep your eyes closed whenever you can." He tossed the ribbon further ahead.  
For a long time, the four of them crawled in a straight line towards the oasis in the centre. Every so often, Sonic felt an edge under his fingers, and reported that there were indeed holes, although the central bridge seemed clear.  
When he was within feet of the platform, he half-heartedly chucked the ribbon forward a little. It drifted down... down past where the invisible floor was, down and down. Sonic watched it drift down into darkness.  
"We have a problem," he said.  
"Don't say that," Niles moaned.  
"Between here and there... there's no floor. We're gonna have to jump."  
"Absolutely not, dear hedgehog."  
Sonic trembled as he picked himself up onto his feet. It felt like he was standing on the edge of the skyscraper. He refused to look back to see how far away safety was. His mind suddenly gave him the unwholesome thought that the small platform might actually just be leviating, and that it would fall into oblivion with him on it the moment he set foot...  
He clenched his eyes shut and jumped, and screamed. The sound was cut short when his feet landed on solid ground. He looked down... visible stone under his feet, and breathed a sigh of relief.  
"Sonic, I don't think we're all gonna fit on that, mate," Espio said, "And Niles is gonna have a heart attack if he has to jump."  
"Stay there," Sonic replied, "I'll get what we want and we can all go back together."  
For the first time, his attention shifted to what was on the platform. It was a surprise, but in retrospect, he thought, it probably shouldn't have been.  
There was a huge emerald. Carved into an intricate shape, the enormous chunk of emerald was almost completely clear. It only looked like a feeble, glass frame on a pedestal that would shatter if a breeze blew on it. He placed his hand on it, though, and found that it was quite sturdy and solid. His arm felt cold... when he looked down at it, he saw that everything from his shoulder to his fingers had become semitransparent, and the effect was worsening. He took his hand off the emerald, and it faded back into opacity.  
"This answers everything," Sonic said, "This weird temple, even the fact that the whole island seems to not exist until you're right on top of it. This whole place is completely invisible to the outside world! It's an emerald... like on the Floating Island. This is the Invisible Island!"  
"Great," Espio said, "But is there a rune?"  
Sonic walked around the emerald pedestal, and at the base of it on one side was a large box, like a coffin. There was writing on the lid.  
"Sheh khem rhall nos krem ta krem ja," Sonic read aloud.  
"The worlds seperate," Roxanna said, "And the worlds awaken."  
Sonic wrenched open the lid. Inside the box was a single chunk of flat rock with a mark on its surface. "It's here!" he exclaimed.  
"Great!" Espio replied, "Now bring it back here and lets get the heck out of this crazy building and out of this wretched jungle!"  
But Sonic didn't move. He just stood with the stone in his arms, looking at it.  
"Ha," he said.  
"Sonic? What?"  
The hedgehog showed the stone to the others. The only mark on the surface was the word _HA!_ No rune, no inscription.  
"Is this you people's idea of a joke?" Niles asked Roxanna.  
"No," Sonic replied, "This is just an ordinary chunk of rock, written on with magic marker. Cinos has been here, and he has the rune already. We have to get to him before he leaves the island."  
"Wibble-_kee_!"

XXVI

Sonic froze. He slowly turned his head around to see behind him. A Wibble-Kee hopped onto the platform from some other bridge. The other two creatures weren't far behind. The closest one bobbed its head in innocent curiosity.  
"Go," Sonic said, "You guys, get back to safety. I'll follow you."  
The party didn't have to be told twice. They hurriedly crawled back to the visible ground while Sonic faced off with the creatures alone.  
The leader, the large red lizard, passed its companions and approached Sonic. The hedgehog tossed the useless rock at it, but it quickly ducked away with its rubbery neck, and the rock missed completely. It shattered on an invisible platform, and most of the chunks rolled off the edge into oblivion as the sound echoed through the temple.  
"_Craaaaaank_!" the creature screeched.  
"Okay... you wanna have some of me?" Sonic asked, "You wanna get a bite out of _my_ hide? You wanna taste Sonic the Hedgehog? Come and get it then. Lunch is on me."  
Sonic backed off the visible ground onto the invisible, stepping blindly back and hoping that there would always be something to support him.  
The Wibble-Craank didn't step off the ground that it could see. It seemed hesitant, nervous, but the creatures obviously had some idea of the situation as they walked the transparent ground to get as far as they did. It showed they had intelligence... at least the leader did.  
Sonic took another step back, another, another... until one step dangled off the edge of solid matter and into oblivion. His heart skipped a beat, and he took a quick step forward again. After a few seconds regaining his composure, his worried trembling lips became a grin.  
"Come and get me," he said, "There's a ledge behind me. I don't know if you can understand me, but in case you can... I'm trapped, wibble-breath. I give up. Lunch is served. So _eat me!_"  
The lizard cocked its head for a moment, but after only a slight hesitation, it shrieked its loudest "_Craaaaaank!_" and bolted forward. Its feet clicked on the ground that couldn't be seen. Its shadow vanished with the ground, and it ran on nothing. In an instant it was on top of Sonic, thrashing for the kill. But no...  
Sonic jumped. Higher than he thought he could, he jumped.  
The creature tried to screech to a halt, but it halted too late. The ground ran out beneath it. With an enraged cry, the Wibble-Craank fell towards the darkness, thrashing and kicking, until it could be heard no more.  
Meanwhile, the other creatures ran around each other in distress, shouting their Wibble-Kees at each other, and Sonic used the time to find solid ground and make his way to safety. The creatures pursued, but couldn't navigate the maze of invisible floors and pits. The group of four ran down the tunnel to the exit while the cacophany of distressed creatures faded out behind them.

XXVII

"That ruled!" Espio exclaimed, panting, "You showed those things who's boss! Lets get out of here in case they find their way!"  
Sonic was puffed, and his headache throbbed with his heart. He held his head and looked up.  
His evil twin was standing twenty feet in front of him.  
Sonic froze. "Cinos. Just the guy we were looking for. Nice of you to show up."  
Cinos grinned. "A nice show you put on, there, oh brother. Picking on some poor defenseless mutant iguanas, now? I thought your beef was with me."  
"It still is. You have the rune. Give it up."  
"You'll have to catch me first, now won't you?" The evil hedgehog winked, cackled, and then took off into the jungle. Sonic let out a cry of anger and pursued.

Roxanna gave Espio a questioning look. The chameleon looked equally perplexed.  
"I say," Niles said, "Can either of you explain that to me?"  
"Oh," Espio groaned, and looked at both of the others with a look of growing horror. "Wait a second... I think I understand... I think I know what's going on, here. Somebody needs to catch him, _now_."

So it had come to this yet again. Hedgehog against hedgehog, speed for speed. But there were deeper motivations to these showdowns than the eternal battle of good against evil. Sonic was running to prove himself to Cinos, to his friends, and to _himself_.  
Sonic ran so hard that his legs hurt. It was difficult to build speed when he was jumping over vines and bushes and dodging trees, but slowly he was reaching the velocity that he was known for.  
A flash of blue ahead. His elusive twin forever ahead of him. Sonic poured on all the energy he could muster. He was overdoing it, draining his reserves too quickly, trying too hard. There was no rhythm to his running, it was all necessity. Every ounce of strength had to go into catching his rival.  
They burst out of the darklands, still running. They burst out of the jungle altogether, light shining on them from the afternoon sun.  
And then... Cinos stopped.  
He just stopped and casually turned. Sonic ran harder, ducking down into an attack position. Cinos grinned... cackled. "Fall for me!" he commanded. Sonic tackled... air.  
There was nobody in the field but he. Sonic leaped into the air, screaming, tackling nothing. And when he jumped, he threw himself off a cliff. The water roared below him, and Sonic looked into the wide expanse of the ocean with muddled confusion, moments before his brain kicked in and told him he had to save himself from death. Frantically he shot his hands out as he fell, and at first grabbed nothing, but eventually caught hold of a jagged outcrop of rock embedded in the cliff face. His arms jerked so hard that it almost pulled his shoulders out of joint, and he swung back into the cliff with a thud and dangled.  
Almost a quarter of an hour had passed before the others gathered at the top of the cliff and found him, and he had screamed himself hoarse. A long vine dropped down beside him, which they all held for stability, and Sonic held onto it as they winched him up.

XXVIII

"Cinos isn't here, is he," Sonic sighed.  
The adventurers were being treated for their bruises and injuries back in the porcupine village, and as the sun went down, Sonic, Espio, Niles, Roxanna and Alastrine sat around a crackling bonfire.  
"He probably left the island with the rune months ago," Espio replied.  
Sonic hid his eyes behind his hand. "I'm so embarrassed. I knew what this stupid thing was capable of, I knew it was giving me nightmares and making me see things. But I let it take me in anyway, hook line and sinker, and at the worst possible time. I could have risked everyone else's lives as well, thank God it was only myself who was hurt."  
"No," Alastrine said. She put a hand on top of the Rune of Nine, the deceptively worthless-looking chunk of rock from Desolation. "It was I who failed to warn you of the folly of the Rune of Nine. But this has perhaps been an important learning experience for you, that you cannot always trust what you see."  
"Even so," Sonic replied, "I almost led you guys into a trap because I was gullible."  
"You did nothing of the sort," Espio said. "Listen, Sonic, you don't have to worry about leading us anywhere. You're not doing any of this alone anymore, you've got friends beside you and we're all a team now. We're all going to get through this together."  
"We're not going to let you do anything _too_ silly, good chap," Niles said, "Not with two level-headed companions to keep you on track."  
"And if I do?" Sonic asked, "If I go off and get myself killed?"  
"Then we'll finish the job," Espio replied, "Because this is more than just your quest. It's _our_ quest."  
Sonic struggled to hold back a tear. He wiped it away discreetly while trying to look as though he was scratching his nose.  
"I appreciate that," he said.  
"So where the devil do we go next?" Niles asked, "I mean, pardon me for saying so, but if there are five of these wretched things, it means that our enemy has already obtained three, and if he knows the location of the last, which we can only assume he does, then he has a considerable head-start on his fourth victory."  
"I'm hoping that you guys might know the answer to that one," Sonic replied, and turned to Alastrine and the other porcupines. "Cinos uses his guide Rasputan, somehow, to find the stones wherever they're hidden in the world. I'm hoping that you guys have the same knowledge, that you can track down the fifth for us and tell us where to go. We've lost their trail, they could be anywhere on Mobius, so this is our only shot."  
Alastrine smiled. "You will find the final Rune in the same way that you found the one you hold."  
Sonic looked down at the Rune of Nine, and it throbbed an insidious dart of pain into the centre of his head.  
"I don't understand."  
"Am I mistaken, young one, or have you indeed participated in the ritual of Awakening with these colleagues of yours?"  
Sonic was taken aback. He remembered touching Espio in the Pit of the Chameleon Cabal, and Niles in the Libria cells of Stratosphereon, and connecting with each of their minds in a powerful way. Sonic had known that these episodes were known as Awakenings, but how had this knowledge come to him? He was sure he had no idea.  
"How did you know that?"  
"You are connected," Alastrine explained, "You are Three and One, all at once. I can tell from your auras, Mazsha has brought you together and set you upon the one path. You are intertwined. You are what the ancients referred to in the old language as _ka-tet_, or Kindred. And this connection has been made concrete by your participation in a very ancient ritual of spiritual bond."  
"And you can repeat this ritual?" Sonic asked, "You can share with us what you know of the Runes?"  
"No," Alastrine said, and Sonic was crestfallen for a moment, but the porcupine merely smiled and nodded toward another member of the group. "My granddaughter can."  
"Gramma!" Roxanna cried, "Why must I be the one?"  
"Naturally," Alastrine replied, "For you are the fourth member of their Kindred."  
"I barely know them!"  
"But your spirit has already decided, my child. I have seen this, and I know it to be so. You must undertake this journey, for you have your role to play in the coming events. Each of you has a part to play, and without you, the path of right will surely fall to the powerful whims of evil. This is a difficult truth."  
There was a moment of silence. Roxanna was hesitant even now to take on such a powerful responsibility with these strange characters from across the sea, and Sonic felt sorry for her, for she was easily the youngest of the four adventurers. He wanted to tell her that it was okay, that she didn't have to do anything she didn't want to, but Alastrine's words had put a chill down his spine.  
"All right," Roxanna said at last, "I will go."  
"I am glad," Alastrine said, "But tonight you must all rest. A great responsibility has been placed on you all, but as Kindred you are greater than the sum of you all. The forces of evil threaten to plunge this world into darkness for all time, and only you can stand in their way."  
"We will," Sonic assured her, "We've come this far, and we'll go all the way."

* * *

ROXANNA  
The Sixth Interlude

I've travelled the world from sea to sea and seen remarkable things,  
The falls of empires, the rise of mountains, the legacies of kings,  
But never again in all my life have I been able to find,  
A girl so blessed by spirits that it seemed she always shined.

She never knew such things as fear, this golden one,  
She simply only ever did what needed to be done.  
The ghosts of her ancestors shined upon her from above,  
And she was never sad, for she knew she had their love.

I met her on my travels once, a creature full of soul,  
She was never by herself; the spirits made her whole,  
And she had never doubted this, for doubt polluted her,  
And so she prayed with vigour so such thoughts could never stir.

I asked her, "Have you ever felt your teachings are a lie?  
What makes you so certain that there's life after you die?"  
She said, "I do not question all these things, I simply know,  
The truth is plain for me to see. My spirit tells me so."

I said, "But Sunshine Child, why dedicate your life to faith?  
For if it turns out you are wrong, your life has been a waste!"  
She replied, "A wasted life is one that lives without belief,  
For such a life is just a shell with nothing underneath."

I've travelled this globe all over, oh the lessons I have learned,  
The cultures I have visited, great empires overturned,  
But what a lesson I have learned from one with faith so strong,  
It made me question my beliefs, for how could hers be wrong?


	7. Seven: The Runes of Awakening

AWAKENING  
S Peter Davis

All characters (C) SEGA, Archie and SP Davis 2004 (unless otherwise noted).  
Used without permission

* * *

Seven:  
The Runes of Awakening

* * *

The light in my darkest hour is fear,  
Denies me of anything good,  
So don't lose your heart,  
You'll need it.

- Silverchair

It's a shame we have to die, my dear,  
No-one's getting out of here alive this time.

- Foo Fighters

It's the end of the world as we know it,  
And I feel fine.

- R.E.M.

* * *

FAITH

I/Cinos

In the end, it all came down to light and dark. Opposite sides of the same coin, equal forces vying for the same prize. Reflections of each other. But isn't that the way it always has been?

Picture the darkest, most morbid pit of the underworld. A gigantic wall of rock glows red from the brimstone and searing flames beneath. The heat distorts the air, makes everything waver before your eyes. Embedded in the walls are lines of skulls, forbidding you from proceeding onward if you value your life. Or your sanity.  
Two figures dare to brave this veritable Hades; their shadows, flickering and elongated, dance upon the stone wall behind them.  
"I've palavered with the Hidden Ones, the Old Gods," one says to the other, "They've told me many things, Mister K."  
"It's almost time," the other replies, "A few weeks. I have to play this right, we have to be patient. I can see it, I can almost taste it."  
"He has the Fifth, you know. And he's coming. Right now, he's packing his bags and he's headed here."  
"I've been counting on it. He'll arrive just in time, not a minute too early, I'm sure of it. Fate is playing into my hands, you see. Even fate wants this to happen, can't you feel it? The stones will all move into place at the same time, he'll help it to happen, and then not he, not his friends, not any force on either of these worlds can stop it."

II

"You can only be shown choices. It is up to you to make them."

The world shifted and shimmered as though it were being seen through a lens of water, and Sonic watched it not through the eyes in his head, but the ones in his mind.  
Roxanna stood across from him, the two facing each other, standing alone. They stood in a field of roses. It stretched from horizon to horizon, as far as the eye could see in any direction. An ocean of brilliant red and green, beneath a cobalt blue sky. The sun was directly overhead.  
(Bathe in perfect calm, Sonic)  
Sonic took a deep breath and held it a moment. He found that with his eyes closed he could still see the roses. And why not? Where he was, nobody ever needed eyes to see.  
(Let it flood over you. Let it become you.)  
Far, far away on the horizon, he thought he could see a tall tower, just like the one he had seen on the antiverse-side of Desolation, from this distance only a needle in the sky. But trying to focus on this was only a distraction, and he turned to look at Roxanna, to focus all his concentration and calm on her body and spirit.  
(Let it wash out your concerns. Let me see you. Let me join with you.)  
Sonic had been in this state twice before, but had shared the experience with unconcenting and unwilling partners, amidst hostile surroundings, which had made it an unpleasant and difficult state of affairs. This time, the joining of minds was mutual and calm, as both participants had done this before and entered into it willingly. It was sublime, lucid and simple.  
Roxanna's thoughts and his flowed as two-way traffic from both of their minds. Sonic thought he could almost see it, like streams of mist running toward and away from him in the clear air.  
(Now. What is it you wish to know?)  
_You know what I need._  
(Concentrate on what you seek, Sonic. What is your quest?)  
_My quest is to-_  
(-seek and protect the-)  
_-Runes of Awakening-_  
(-and keep them from the clutches-)  
_-of he who would use them to remake the world in the image of evil._  
(Good. Then let us begin.)  
The field of roses vanished, and they stood in the temple in the jungle, the temple of the Emerald and the Rune. Except that this time, it was not an ancient and disused artifact of a forgotten past. Ancient still, perhaps, but very much in use. Before Sonic eyes, in a huge alcove below him, hundreds of porcupines were gathered together in deep meditation. They sat motionless in dozens of rows, all of their eyes closed, all of them facing the giant clear emerald and a large stone tablet which had been propped up before it.  
As Sonic watched, he paid attention to the flood of knowledge that Roxanna transmitted to his mind. It didn't feel like learning, for their connection made it seem as though he was remembering things he had known all his life, as it was undoubtedly the result of Roxanna's porcupinian tutoring.  
(The Ancients focused their energy through ten years of deep meditation to call upon the magicks of the Mobian spiritual plane, and gather the combined power to split the stream of time itself. Another world was created just below our own, in a unique orbit of synchrony. The Lower Realm.)  
A burst of white light, brilliant but not blinding (for the eyes of the mind were not to be blinded by light of any intensity), obscured Sonic's vision, and when it faded the porcupines were gone, as was the stone tablet. Time raced at an unnatural speed, and the temple began to dilapidate as he watched, plants growing tall and dying and reproducing and overgrowing the building. The Emerald glowed on, unchanging.  
(The accumulated power of the ritual was locked inside the Stone of Awakening, and the Stone was broken into five, its pieces scattered, out of reach of any one mobian. Each bore a powerful symbol, a Rune, one fifth of the magickal formula to unlock their secrets. One, the Rune of Shalpad, remained here, at the gateway of the two realms, protected by each generation of porcupine as a testiment to peace. The others were taken to the four corners of the globe, each locked inside a mighty Tower.)  
Again the scene changed before Sonic's eyes, and he found himself once again in the wastelands of the Torion Cape, staring up at that massive tower that stood alone in the antiverse. Stormclouds overhead crackled and thundered, sparked and rumbled like angry gods.  
(The Runes lock the Upper and Lower Realm together as nails driven through wood. The Towers were constructed in the Lower Realm as spiritual conductors to lock away the devastating power of the Runes, which were held in the Upper Realm; and so they stand in duality - Tower and Rune, each existing not in one realm but in both, a physical aspect and a spiritual.)  
Sonic watched as a bolt of lightning struck the top of the Tower, and the entire structure lit up for a moment with a surge of blue energy. For a moment he thought he could see two worlds at once, merged together at the base of the Tower, distorted and intertwined, subjected to some unfathomable force.  
(Each Rune carries with it a fragment of the combined spirit of the Ancients, their mirth, their fears, their woe, their love, their wrath, the most intimate essence of their souls created in the likeness of Mazsha. Each was buried in a powerful position on the face of Mazsha's Mobius, upon the image of a star that for thousands of years has knitted these powers together across deserts and oceans, jungles and mountains. And here they remain, until the time of the Prophecy.)  
_Tell me of this prophecy._  
The image changed again. Now they stood in a terrible place, a cavernous pit of flames and sulfur. Rivers of magma flowed through the caverns, and Sonic saw that he and Roxanna were standing knee-deep in it, although there was no pain, not in the immortal world of the imagination. Even so, Sonic felt a growing fear of this place.  
(The Prophecy tells of the end of the age of the Dual Realms, where one mortal is to collect the five pieces of the Stone and reunite them in the flaming core of Mazsha's mighty heart. The mortal, draped in a brilliant blue, enters the portal of the spirital Awakening, and here he transcends his mortality, he enters the realm of souls and absorbs the spiritual energies of the universe into himself. Even the Gods bow to him as he undoes creation and remakes the world in His image.)  
Sonic turned and saw there was a rock cliff as high as fifty meters above the lake of fire, and somebody was standing at the edge, defiantly, as though there was nothing to fear from teetering over the edge. Had Sonic not known better, he might have thought that it was himself he could see up there on the cliff, but it was clear to him that it was Cinos. The dark hedgehog stared down at him, and he was surrounded by some kind of bright white light- No, five points of light, so bright that they looked like only one.  
Sonic was suddenly very afraid, and Roxanna sensed his fear as easily as if it was her own.  
(Do not fear him! You must not allow him the upper hand!)  
Sonic turned around, but Cinos was already behind him. He was cackling and reaching for Sonic's neck, and Sonic cried out and fell backward.  
(He cannot harm you! Be strong!)  
"Oh, give it up, Sonic," Cinos snorted. The Runes lay in a circle around him, and the symbol on each stone was glowing like the sun. Around Cinos' body were the tight pale coils of the thing Sonic knew as the Whitewyrm, although it was now a great slimy beast as big as an anaconda with squid-like suckers along the length of its body. It pulsated and quivered, and made a soft high-pitched cry. Cinos didn't seem to mind, in fact he stroked its vile flesh with one hand, while he held an apple in the other. He took a bite out of the fruit, laughing deep in his throat. The apple bled like an animal.  
"Why don't you just go home?" the dark hedgehog asked, "Seriously, back out of this with a bit of honour intact. It's just starting to look pathetic, now, dear brother. How many times am I going to have to beat you?"  
(Your fears are taking you over,) Roxanna hissed, (You must stand up to them if you are to have any hope of victory!)  
"Oh shut up, kiddo, the grown-ups are talking," Cinos snapped. "So how about it, Sonic? Last chance to concede before I have to humiliate you completely. Remember what I told you about the nature of evil. It always wins. You know I'm right. As long as you have a conscience, you'll always have something weighing you down. Think about it. It makes sense. You know it does."  
_No!_ Sonic screamed, _No! No! No! I won't let you do this!_  
"Sonic? Boo."  
The Whitewyrm lashed out at Sonic with a terrifying roar, its mouth full of teeth like shards of glass, but before it could touch him, the intensity of his fear severed the connection he had with Roxanna, and the Awakening came to an end.

III

(This saying good-bye on the edge of the dark and cold to an orchard so young in the bark)

The final leg of the journey was also the most comfortable, thanks largely to the porcupines of Septennia, who stocked Sonic and his companions with as many supplies as they could ably carry. Each had a sleeping bag, and a knapsack of food and herbal medicines. Everything was made of some crude kind of woven organic material that had been treated to resist decomposition, but it was all rather feeble anyway. Sonic hoped that they were never caught in the rain, for he believed that their supplies might simply fall apart. He supposed he couldn't blame them, for the porcupines never travelled, and what craft they knew suited their purposes just fine.  
The most finely tailored piece of equipment in their inventory was a small bag that Sonic carried around his shoulder - inside it, the Rune of Nine. Alastrine had evidently cast some kind of enchantment upon it and provided it for this purpose, claiming it would dull the Rune's effects on the unguarded mind. And it worked, Sonic thought, for it put an end to the halluscinations and nightmares he had been experiencing. It all came down to rotten luck that the one stone his party had managed to procure was the one that was perhaps the most difficult to live with. It was not an evil object, he sensed, it was probably as neutral and indifferent as any other rock. But it was also harsh, unforgiving and intolerant, like some pagan god.  
Espio scoffed at the idea that they were carrying some kind of enchanted bag, and more than once he mentioned something he called the _placebo effect_.  
Either way, the party of four travelled the rest of the distance without concern for any phantom rock playing havoc with their emotions, and at night they slept in relative comfort. What was more, Sonic found he enjoyed the journey more than ever, and chalked it up to the fact that he was in the company of fine friends. It seemed at times more like a vacation, a road-trip, than a mission. Taking care to resist the urge to sightsee, they made the final lap of the journey in record time.  
Unfortunately, one member of their party was not present, and this alone concerned Sonic, for he worried about the implications of reaching the end of this journey as a broken team.

(Reminds me of all that can happen to harm an orchard away at the end of the farm)

It hadn't started out this way. But there had been resistance in the group when Sonic had announced exactly where it was that they were going. For Niles feared a conspiracy when he heard, and although he was cranky a good ninety percent of the time, Sonic had never seen him so furious. It was not conspiracy, however, merely inconvenient coincidence. Or perhaps there was more to it than that, for Sonic did at times suspect that there was an intelligence guiding their fate, although whether it was working for or against them he could never quite say.  
During his mind-meeting with Roxanna, Sonic had envisioned the image of a five-pointed star, a powerful shape in porcupine lore. Later he referred to the map of Westerica and marked their progress with a stub of chalk. Four rune locations he already knew, and could instantly see that, connected, they formed the same shape over the landscape.  
The peak of the star sat over Sun Port, the dock of Stratosphereon, on the coast of the gulf that led out to the northern ocean. The town of Desolation was at the tip of the star's left arm, and the right was somewhere in the Crux Desert where the Chameleon Cabal had held their awful ceremonies. The right leg of the star stretched over the southern ocean and came to a point on the 'Annual Isle', the Land of Septennia. From here it was a simple task to measure out the left leg and follow it to its tip, for there was where the fifth rune resided, unless it had been taken already, by Cinos or someone else. Somehow he felt sure that it would be there, and so would Cinos. He was to clash one final time with his evil twin, and it was to happen here.  
He knew that the place would be populated. Every other site had been, even the two runes they had found out in the desert had been in the middle of some isolated pocket of civilisation. These were very powerful places, perhaps the most powerful places on all of Mobius, and they called people the world over to them, one way or another, the way shards of iron will find their way to points of great magnetic force. And, just as he expected, the final point of the star landed on a city of some decent size, on the southwestern tip of Westerica, sandwiched between the fertile lands and a coastal mountain range. It was called Bayer, and it was so close to home that Sonic didn't know whether to laugh or cry. If only he had known this to begin with, all the time he needn't have wasted, all the distance he needn't have travelled. While Cinos had set out northward into the desert, Sonic could have gone to Bayer and Septennia without expending too much effort at all, and scooped up two runes rather than the meager one he had collected after all his blood, sweat and tears. It may have made this journey somwhat simpler.  
Of course, in that case he would never have met Espio and Niles, and that would have been a dire shame. There are some misfortunes, he found, that he wouldn't have any other way.

(All winter, cut off by a hill from the house. I don't want it girdled by rabbit and mouse)

Niles had thrown a veritable fit when the name of the town had been spoken, and for a while Sonic hadn't the vaguest idea why. The fox demanded to know why they had to go to that awful town, and began to insist that this had been somehow planned from the beginning, an elaborate hoax designed to lure him away from his new life. He began to accuse Sonic and Espio of being kidnappers, mercenaries hired by the Arack Empire.  
Sonic soon learned that Bayer was the city where Niles had grown up, and from which he had fled as a fugitive when the Arack Empire had taken over. Niles was terrified at the prospect of having to go back there, fearing that he would never be able to escape the city twice. The only thing that the Aracks hated more than a freeloader was a traitor, and leaving an Arack settlement without the express permission of the Webb was seen to be an act of such.  
Sonic was not indifferent to his companion's plight by any means. He knew of tyranny and he knew of fear, and he understood that it was unreasonable for him to ask that Niles put himself in jeopardy to such an extent. Once again, Sonic was caught in a moral conundrum, the solution to which he couldn't seem to figure out. He had already taken two people from their homes, one against his will, and put them through countless dangers on what was largely a personal crusade. Niles and Espio trusted him and believed in him, they had _faith_ in him. It seemed a fine line between harnessing that faith and exploiting it. To what degree was he willing to endanger them to succeed in his own quest? Was he willing, even, to sacrifice them? Was it right that he should do so, considering the greater implications of failure?  
Espio, always the level-headed one, had made a statement that had relieved his mind a good deal. "This is more than just your quest," he had said, "It's _our_ quest."  
It was an insightful point. Espio and Niles were their own people, they had free will and intelligence enough to make their own decisions. Sonic figured that the best thing to do was to lay out all the facts, establish the risks, leave everything out in the open, and allow his companions to make up their own minds. If they decided to follow him into the inferno, then it was their perogative. He would not try to force them. They could end the journey here if they so desired, and he would make do.  
Niles decided to take Sonic on his word, and although Espio was fuming about the fox's cowardly behaviour, Sonic restrained him from giving Niles a piece of his mind. They would make the trip back to the mainland together, and then Niles and the rest of the group would go their own seperate ways. Sonic reasoned that an unwilling Niles would be useless to them anyway. And so, when the time came to leave, the porcupines of Septennia donated a sturdy wooden boat to the foreign crusaders and their new porcupinian companion, and after one night travelling northwest, they once again reached the Westerican shore somewhere just west of the Great Forest (So close to home that Sonic was sure he could see the smoke of Terantulopolis on the horizon). And the next morning, Niles Wilkinson-Price bade them good fortune for the remainder of their journey, and left them.

(I don't want it dreamily nibbled for browse by deer, and I don't want it budded by grouse)

After travelling for so long with the same two companions, it felt strange to Sonic not to have Niles around, and instead to travel with Roxanna, a relative stranger. As time passed, Sonic began to realise that she got along much better with Espio than she did with himself, and at first he couldn't understand why. The chameleon and the porcupine were about as different from each other as it was possible to be. Roxanna, after all, had grown up in a culture adept in the spiritual arts of what Cinos had referred to as the Old Ways. She claimed to be able to see and read auras, bands of colour around people's bodies, almost like the spiritual miasma of the soul. She claimed prophetic visions and dreams frequented her, and she never stopped talking about Mazsha and the other characters of her ancient religion. Espio, however, was a strong skeptic and an atheist who found little time for spiritual matters, things he regarded to be little more than fairy stories for grownups. But these differences seemed to enhance, rather than obstruct, the development of their friendship. They seemed to fascinate each other. Sonic was quite sure also that Espio was attracted to Roxanna, which obviously helped. And they did say, after all, that opposites attract. Sonic thought about the way his evil twin Cinos held a disturbing allure over him when his guard was down, and he shuddered.  
Sonic was also prouder than Espio by nature, as was Roxanna, and one of the most recognised universal truths about interpersonal relationships was that two inflated egos weren't likely to get along. And so, as Espio and Roxanna grew closer, Sonic couldn't help feeling somewhat like a third wheel. With two companions who were both very strongly opinionated on spiritual matters, Sonic couldn't help missing Niles as a go-between. But it was just the three of them, now; their Kindred was broken, they would just have to make do.

(I wish I could promise to lie in the night and think of an orchard's arboreal plight, when slowly and nobody comes with a light)

There was a city very close to Bayer named Meath, and although like Port Knix it was heavily pouplated with spiders, it was still a seperate locality from the Arack Empire and did not answer to them. Things would change, Sonic figured. It was scary how much of a foothold the Empire had on Westerica, now; living confined to the Great Forest, Sonic hadn't realised the extent of it. How long had it been since the fall of Mobitropolis? Five years? Less? In the frighteningly short amount of time since the Acorn monarchy had fallen, the Arack Empire had siezed the entire south coast of the former kingdom. Far be it for Sonic to ever consider the deposition of Robotnik to be a bad thing, at least the good Doctor had been a moderate counterweight to the political pressure of Arack. The power vacuum that had been created at the end of his reign had only allowed the Empire to solidify their grip on the continent. Sonic figured that Sally would want to know of what he had seen on this journey. The threat they faced now was one more powerful than a single sociopathic dictator running a genocide factory on the outskirts of Westerica. Even the Kingdom of Acorn in all its might had struggled to hold back the flood of the Arack Empire into this part of the world - the Freedom Fighters had been a thorn in Robotnik's side, but it was going to take more than a few thousand forest-dwelling rebels to hold back this threat. It would be like an elephant being attacked by a mosquito.  
This was a concern for another day, though. For now, the focus was Cinos.  
The road they had been following started in the farmlands to the southeast as a dirt track for a few dozen kilometres, and then merged in the more populated area as a bitumen road. Horses trotted past every so often, pulling carts full of vegetables and other trade from the farms. The first time Sonic saw an automotive tractor plowing the fields, he had laughed almost until he choked. They were back in civilisation, back in a world that Sonic had known before liberty had grown sick and died. The fact of this town's inevitable assimilation into the Arack Empire was what got to him. He didn't want to admit it, but he felt like crying.  
Looking toward the north horizon, the travellers could clearly see the city of Bayer, black and foreboding, their final destination on this long and arduous journey. A year of almost non-stop travel had taken them unbelievably far, they had circumnavigated the entire continent, coast to coast, and now they made plans to stop for the last time, so close to Sonic's home that he could smell the pollens of the Great Forest on the breeze.  
Sonic, Espio and Roxanna made their final plans, prepared to conclude their travels and face their demons once and for all. It was time to end this thing.

(Its heart sinks lower under the sod. But something has to be left to God)

IV

There was a cafe not far from the entrance to town, and the party sat down for a well-deserved rest. Espio plonked the rune down onto the table, and the symbol stared blankly upwards. Sonic was staring into the street.  
"You have magnificent settlements," Roxanna said, "Your world is bigger than I could ever have imagined. My people will be fascinated by my tales when I return home."  
"This is nothing," Sonic replied, "Mobitropolis was ten times this big. And Station Square had skyscrapers."  
"Was and had," Roxanna replied, "Not is and has. Do these cities not exist any longer?"  
"Not really. Mobitropolis has been taken over twice. It's an Arack city, now, like the one we're headed toward. And Station Square was levelled by a kind of monster, so it's not very impressive anymore, although they're rebuilding it slowly."  
"A monster? Such as the Wood Devil?"  
Sonic chuckled morbidly. "Uhh, a little bigger actually."  
Roxanna shook her head. "There is still so much conflict in this part of the world. I should not wish to remain here longer than necessary."  
Espio scoffed at this. "What, you don't have any conflict back on Monster Island?"  
"Our faith gives us peace. The rest of the world has lost this faith and that is the reason that there is so much violence. Those who live in harmony with Mazsha see no reason to kill and harm one another."  
"What, like the Bloodmongers?"  
Roxanna paused for a moment. "That is different," she said, "The Bloodmongers corrupted Mazsha's message to serve their own desires."  
"Yeah, exactly. No matter how good a religion's intentions are, it always winds up killing people one way or another."  
"You guys talk about religion like it's a living, breathing thing," Sonic said, "I don't know if people invented religion or not, but it's people who practice it, and the way I figure, people are going to hurt each other no matter what they believe. If there's some ideology going around that at least tries to convince people to respect one another, I don't see how that can be a bad thing."  
"I don't agree," Espio said, "For me, it's gotta be the truth. A bunch of people who believe a lie in order to stop them fighting is really no better than the people of Stratosphereon. Sure, there's peace, but at what cost? Those people are never going to be free. They're on puppet strings. Whether the drug is God or Libria, it's still just a complex system of mind control."  
"You have a very rigid interpretation of the concept of truth," Roxanna said.  
"Of course I do, that's how the world works. Everything has to be either truth or fiction. It happened or it didn't happen. The truth is out there whether we know it or not."  
Sonic suddenly recalled his short tour of the antiverse city Chagrin Las Mortis, and his conversation with Father Thaldymort on a similar topic to this. "We never know anything for certain," the priest had said, "Faith is inherent in every decision we make every day." And there was wisdom in this, it seemed. Truth was an elusive, abstract concept that may or may not actually have existed. What was it, after all, but the sum of facts which were contructed from varying degrees of belief?"  
A stranger said, "You guys want anything?"  
They all looked up. A waitress had approached them. She was a hedgehog with brown spines, and the long bangs of hair on her head had been dyed black. She cocked an eyebrow and looked down at them.  
"Uhh, actually," Sonic said, "We were just sitting here. We don't have any money. I hope it's okay." It was true. The last time any of them had seen money was when they were using the last of it to hire a boat out of Port Knix, a boat they proceeded to sink. They wouldn't be getting their bond back on that particular investment.  
The waitress shrugged. "Don't worry about it. I haven't seen you folks around... that's a nice rock."  
The Rune's protective bag lay open on the table, and the stone itself lay inside like a big dumb stone from anywhere, except for the intricately carved design in the middle. Three parallel lines, two straight and one waved.  
"Thanks," Sonic replied, a little embarrassed.  
"You haven't seen another one like it, by any chance, have you?" Espio asked, although his expectations for the affirmative bordered on nonexistant.  
"Sorry," she replied, "You guys look like you've been on the road for a while."  
"Oh yeah," Sonic replied, "Forever. I barely remember what home looks like."  
"Wow," the waitress replied, "How about I bring you lads a round of drinks on account? On the house."  
"Are you allowed to do that?" Sonic asked.  
"I own the place," she replied, "So I guess I can."  
So the four of them became acquainted; the waitress introduced herself as Kim, as she handed out a round of tall, ice cold lemonades.  
"Tell me about the rock," she said.  
"The bane of our collective existence," Espio replied.  
"We're on a quest to save the universe," Sonic added. "We have to protect this rock from my evil twin, or else we're all going to die."  
"The stone is the key to a parallel realm manifested by my ancestors," Roxanna said.  
"Uh huh," Kim nodded with faux interest, "Seriously. What's with the rock?"  
"I like rocks," Sonic replied, and sucked on his lemonade straw.

V

Sonic and his companions rested for a few hours at the cafe, discussing their strategy. Kim, the waitress and proprietor of the establishment, turned out to be highly talkative and provided them a great deal of useful information on Meath, Bayer and the surrounding area. Bayer had evidently been renamed Sol-Hayyim after the Arack Empire had assimilated it, and it was now operating under Arack law under the lordship of a spider named Slobodan Vladimir. There was pressure in the parliamentary council of Meath to make the same change, and sadly it was probably inevitable. The Arack Empire didn't always expand through invasion and war; often they simply used political leverage to overwhelm their opponents. Once a pro-Arack party was established in a government, the Empire put an enormous amount of effort into procuring power for it, through fair means or foul. If it didn't end with a full political coup, it was usually because the Empire simply flooded the city with so much of its own influence that a coup wasn't necessary. Either way, the Arack Empire was accustomed to getting its way.  
Arack cities had an unusual policy regarding tourism, and it was easy to see why tourism was so rare. Visitors from outside the Empire were required to work in exchange for avoiding extradition. The Aracks didn't think highly of the idea of a bunch of foreigners freeloading off their facilities, it seemed.  
In fact, the two most important virtues of being an Arack were work ethic and insane paranoia, which brought to light a considerable problem Sonic's group was going to have to solve before they could proceed - none of them were going to be allowed into Sol-Hayyim without some kind of proper identification, something of which none of them had possession. Sonic pondered on this conundrum and wondered how Cinos had gotten around it, for he was sure that he had, somehow.  
"So are you guys gonna be staying here for a while before you go and get yourselves killed?" Kim asked.  
Sonic looked out over the comfortable-looking town and thought about how different it was going to be from the Arack colony down the road. He wished the ancients had had the foresight to bury their rune somewhere that wouldn't become infested by a hostile empire of workaholics with too many limbs.  
"I suppose we will," he said, "We're going to have to figure some things out, first. I don't know where we're going to stay, though, with no money."  
"Well," Kim replied, "A good friend of mine runs a shelter downtown, if you don't mind slumming it for a night or two. It's not very glamourous, but there's a mattress and a roof, and you get a free meal. Might be better than sleeping on a pile of leaves."  
She pointed to the three porcupine-crafted sleeping bags that lay under the table, and they did indeed look almost like bags of leaves and bark. Sonic didn't want to admit it aloud with Roxanna present, but he did yearn for the comforts of modern technology after roughing it for so long.  
"Who's this friend of yours?" Espio asked.  
"Father Matheson," Kim replied, "He does a lot of charity work in the area. Nicest guy you'll ever meet, if only a little eccentric."  
She gave them the directions to Matheson's shelter, and Sonic made a note to check it out. In the meantime, they had much to learn about the nature of life in Sol-Hayyim if they were going to infiltrate its dark heart and play with the fires within.

VI

Work Sector M012, known to its inhabitants as The Pit, provided eighty percent of Sol-Hayyim's raw construction materials, and for this reason it was very important to the Arack colony's ongoing prosperity. It also employed a large number of what the Aracks called Quads, or non-spider mobians, who worked hard in the dark of the mines with very little reward for their labour. To say that the Quads were slaves was an opinion open to dispute. After all, they worked no harder than the spiders who shared their burden. However, it was an ironic twist on the concept of liberty that it was the policy of equality that actually worked against them in the Empire. For equality was set at an Arack standard, one that the non-spider citizens found it much more difficult to achieve.  
By way of a quirk of biology, the mobian spider's strength and agility exceeded that of any other race on Mobius. They could exert more effort, for longer, with less food and rest. The industrial laws of the Arack Empire were based upon taking this fact for granted. Arack settlements worked like giant machines, of which every citizen was a part. There was no excess baggage allowed, nobody was permitted to absorb more of the Empire's prosperity than they put in, as such people were seen as freeloaders, decadent parasites. Welfare was a concept barely even existent in the Empire, as even those who were crippled or old were able to do _something_ to earn their survival.  
Unfortunately, Quads were required to match their spider colleagues in terms of work and output, and this was where life became difficult for non-spiders living under the wing of the Arack Empire. In the dark shafts of The Pit, it was considered average for an individual to work a fifteen-hour day with a single quarter-hour break. A spider could do this standing on his head, and in fact many skipped their break on account of it taking almost the whole quarter-hour to leave and return to the mines anyway. For a Quad, it was a little more difficult, and for this reason the non-mobian races were frequently typecast by the Aracks as lazy, apathetic and whiny. It was difficult for a non-spider to attract sympathy, and the more they complained, the harder it was to be a Quad living in the Arack Empire.  
Such was the case of Harvey O'Sale, a weasel who lived and worked in the city of Sol-Hayyim as a miner deep in The Pit. Although Harvey was not content to bear the brunt of the Aracks' overzealous labour oppression. He had seen the horrible effects of overworked mobians being driven past the threshold of exhaustion, seen what it could do to people, and he wasn't content to simply watch it happen. That was why, when most workers were using their well-earned fifteen minutes of break time to have some rest and eat some of the Empire's standard barely-digestable pseudo-food, Harvey O'Sale was spending time with Broderick Gibb, eating a hearty meal of high-protein food illegally smuggled into the mines, and discussing the details of the conspiracy that was soon going to shake the foundations of this mighty Arack slave machine.  
Broderick Gibb was a fearsome individual, a ten-foot grizzly bear, a patch over one eye and three fingers missing from his left hand. The weight of his muscle alone almost equalled that of two whole mobians, and he was one of the only Quads in the city who was able to meet the uncanny labour standards of the Arack overlords. But Harvey was not intimidated by this mobian, who could snap him over one knee with all the ease of breaking a cracker between his fingers, because Broderick Gibb was one of the most prominent players in an underground movement for Quad liberation. Broderick saw the plight of his fellow mobians and was sympathetic and kind-hearted despite his fearsome appearance. He was one of the ringleaders of a very secret operation known only as the Spanner Project, of which very few knew the name and even fewer knew the details. Discretion was important, as the discovery of a Quad conspiracy within the ranks of the Arack Empire would have dire consequences (The paranoia of the Arack elite was legendary and their knee-jerk overkill reactions to threats were globally notorious) but the Spanner Project's success would bring an end to Quad oppression in Sol-Hayyim and, hopefully, bring the issue to the attention of the world, inspire similarly downtrodden people to take a stand against the Empire. A lot depended on this, and those at the reigns of the project were determined to get it right.  
"Delicious," Harvey O'Sale muttered, shovelling food into his mouth faster than he could chew it. "Sometimes I forget what real food tastes like."  
Broderick just grunted in reply, watching out for anybody who might stumble in on their private meeting. It was unlikely, but a possibility. Broderick did not eat, for he had already eaten and had unlimited access to this kind of contraband, which Harvey did not.  
"So what's the word?" Harvey asked, speaking with his mouth full, "Has Shapesk set a date?"  
"Three days," Broderick replied, "Provided the shipment comes in soon, and provided everything is running smoothly. He wants to know that everything is in order, that there will be no problems at ground zero. We can't afford any mistakes down there, a miscalculation has the potential to be catastrophic."  
"My guys are ready. I've seen to it myself. There won't be a problem, at least not at this end."  
"Excellent. Tell them to prepare themselves. In three days we move."  
"That's good news. I have to go. Break's over."  
"Time flies."  
They shook hands, and Broderick put a big hand on Harvey's shoulder and nodded.  
"See you tomorrow, Harvey," the bear said, "If you can live another three days in this pit of horror, I'll see to it personally you never have to lift a pick or a shovel again."  
"That sounds mighty fine, Brod, mighty fine."

VII

Sonic, Espio and Roxanna went in search of the town of Meath's homeless shelter as the sun fell in the west and the cold began to descend, the insufferably dark and icy cloak of night. Sonic wondered how many nights he still had to spend away from home. Lately it seemed he couldn't shake the images of his friends from his mind, for although his new friends were great ones, he still pined for his old comrades, the young fox Tails who had become his closest ally, Sally and the Freedom Fighters, even the introverted Knuckles. He didn't want them to fret about him, but nevertheless he hoped they thought of him as often as he thought of them.  
The shelter stood exactly where Kim had told them it would be. A few vagrants milled about outside and in, warming themselves and listening to an old radio that had been set up. Some were playing board games and others sleeping in bunk beds that had been set up, a couple of dozen. The three travellers stepped inside and attracted a few glances, but nobody seemed particularly surprised to see them. Sonic looked at himself and his tired, travel-worn companions, and was surprised to see just how closely the three of them resembled the homeless. Sonic recalled the days when he himself had lived on the streets of Mobitropolis, and couldn't help thinking that his life had come full circle.  
Somebody wearing a long set of robes was busy about the task of making one of the beds, and Sonic began to approach him. When the stranger turned to him, Sonic almost jumped out of his skin.  
"_Thaldymort!_"  
The wolf priest, tall, dignified and gaunt, stood before him with his rosary around his neck and a pile of laundry in his arms. But after only a moment, Sonic saw clearly that this was not Father Thaldymort at all. This priest was younger, had for the time escaped the ravages of age, without any gray hairs or crow's feet in the corners of his eyes. As a matter of fact, he didn't look much like the antiverse priest at all. Sonic felt mildly embarrassed.  
"Whatymort?" the stranger asked, "Why, you must be some kind of crazyperson."  
"Sorry, I thought you were someone else," Sonic replied.  
"Hm? Funny. Nobody's ever anybody except who they are. I mean, if we weren't who we were, then who would be?"  
Sonic and Espio looked at each other, bewildered.  
"Can you repeat the question?" Espio asked.  
"I don't even remember what the question was," the priest admitted, slumping his shoulders. "Anyway. Nice meeting you all."  
He wandered away and began to go about whatever needed to be done.  
"It seems to me that no information was actually exchanged during that conversation," Roxanna said.  
"Yeah," Sonic replied, "Let me try again. Hey!"  
The priest turned around again. "Oh! Hello there."  
"Yeah, hi. Listen, are you in charge here?"  
"Yes." The wolf held out a hand. "Father Yuke Matheson. I run this shelter. Unless you have come to rob me, in which case I'm afraid I don't speak any English."  
Sonic shook the hand, and found that Father Matheson had an uncomfortably firm grip. He wasn't sure how to take this strange behaviour, so decided to take it in good humour. After all, Kim the waitress seemed to get a kick out of it.  
"My friends and I were wondering if we could stay here for a night or so. Is there room?"  
"Oh yes, there's room. Always room. Do any of you have any contageous diseases, may I ask?"  
"Oh, no," Sonic replied.  
"Well, you will tomorrow. I hope you like ebola."  
The priest wandered away again, and Sonic, slightly disconcerted, returned to his companions. "We can stay," he said, "Uh, I think. Well, anyway, it's not too flashy, but at least there's a bed, and it's warmer in here than out there."  
"Great, I can't wait to hit the sack," Espio replied.  
Father Matheson appeared again with an expression of mild concern written on his face.  
"I was only kidding about the ebola," he said, "I mean, you guys got that, right?"  
"Yeah," Sonic replied with a chuckle, "I gotcha."  
"Great." Matheson sighed with relief. "I wouldn't want to worry you, we haven't had an outbreak in days." The odd priest wandered away, muttering to himself.

VIII

Despite his exhaustion, Sonic had trouble sleeping. He lay awake in the bunk (which was every bit as comfortable as he had hoped) and cursed the fact that one of his very few opportunities to experience this degree of comfort was wasted by his inability to stop worrying about tomorrow.  
He glanced around the shelter. Espio was sound asleep, and had been from the moment his head had hit the pillow. Sonic envied the chameleon's ability to stay as cool as a winter breeze in even the most stressful situations. He would awaken tomorrow, rested and content, prepared to face whatever the day might throw at him without complaint or dejection, simply eager to get the job done and move on. He had never even needed to be convinced, his loyalty cost no price. Even though he didn't believe in the power of the Old Ways, put no credence in the idea that Cinos could do any harm at all with these runes he sought. Espio just seemed to enjoy the fantasy, was so happy simply to escape his sheltered life and go on an adventure alongside somebody he could talk to.  
In the coming days, this quest was going to reach its pinnacle, and Sonic was sure that each of them was going to have to prove themselves, each of them had some important role to play in their final stand. Whether they would survive this stand was what Sonic didn't know. What if Espio was to die in the course of the coming events? What if that was his purpose here, his reason for being made Kindred with Sonic? If this journey had indeed been choreographed and planned by God, then Sonic figured a God who would play such a cosmic joke as to bring Espio all this way, all these hundreds of miles, simply to mark him for death at the very end, was not a deity worthy of worship, and Sonic would work hard to stop Cinos, not to honour Him, but to spite Him. He hoped with all his heart that this wasn't so.  
Roxanna, however, would probably be content to die for the sake of fulfilling her role in these events. She, moreso than any of them, had faith in the cosmic importance of this quest. She saw this as her fundamental responsibility, and Sonic was sure that she would do whatever it took to fulfil this responsibility. He saw, with some amusement, that the young porcupine girl had taken to sleeping on the floor beside her empty bed. The Rune of Nine lay in its protective bag at her side, her arm around it protectively. She had not wanted to venture away from her homeland, possessing none of the adventurous spirit that flourished within both Sonic and Espio, but she had taken up this challenge maintaining that it simply must be done, and she did not question that she was the one who must do it.  
Both of Sonic's companions, for widely differing reasons, were solidly dedicated to this quest. Sonic noted with fascination that they were both quite possibly more dedicated to it than he was himself. For he had allowed Cinos to get inside his head and pollute him with doubt. If Cinos had simply been a liar, then it might have been easier to ignore him, but Sonic knew that Cinos was not a liar, because Sonic was not a liar, and they shared the same mind if not the same soul. What the evil hedgehog said made sense, and it drove Sonic mad to think that Cinos might be somehow superior to him. _Cinos_ was the _copy_. But he had less to lose and more to gain, and he would fight to the bitter end. For these reasons, Sonic questioned his ability to defeat his evil twin.  
That, and the fact of Niles' absence.  
This was an enigma, too, that shook Sonic's belief in the idea that he was somehow destined to defeat Cinos. If each of his companions, each of his Kindred, had been placed in his company by destiny in order that he might succeed, then why had Niles been allowed to leave? It wasn't as though he hadn't tried to convince him to stay. Short of physically restraining the fox, Sonic had done everything to keep his group intact to the end. Had destiny failed, or was destiny an illusion?  
Perhaps Espio was right. Perhaps there was no God, there was no destiny, no magic, and the universe was nothing but a series of events held together by dumb logic and, as he had once said, just a lot of light reflecting off stuff and hitting his eyes a certain way. And, in that case, Cinos would surely win in the end. Because, in a universe no deeper than perception, that was the only result that made sense.  
Sonic got up out of bed and, as quietly as he was able, he moved toward the entrance to the shelter. Sleeping would probably be out of the question, at least for a few hours. There was simply too much on his mind.  
The bitter chill of the outside nipped at him the moment he stepped into the open air. He hugged his shoulders and watched the town, dark and placid, sleep through the night.  
"Hey. Kinnos."  
Sonic wasn't sure whether or not the whispered voice from the shadows was his imagination. Since he had become acquainted with the Rune of Nine, he'd learned that he wasn't even able to trust his own perception, which up until now had been one of the only things he knew he always could trust.  
"Kinnos. Kinnos _Sharpe_!"  
But no, there was most definitely somebody there. A figure stepped out of the shadows, an unkempt raccoon in a tattered overcoat, with wild eyes and missing teeth. A vagrant, but one who knew Sonic's cloned twin in some way. Sonic knew it was always a bad sign when somebody approached him mistaking him for Cinos, for the simple fact that most people who knew Cinos were inclined to walk the other way.  
"Not me," Sonic replied, wary.  
The raccoon appeared confused. "Kinnos. What choo doing here?"  
"I said I'm not Kinnos, I'm somebody else. But how do _you_ know him?"  
"What, you idennical twins or suffin?" The vagrant chortled.  
"Or something," Sonic replied.  
"Nah, cut it out," the raccoon said, "How's tings in yonder Sol-Hayyim?"  
"I'm telling you the truth," Sonic snapped, but realised that the truth was going to be impossible for this sheltered streetwalker to accept. So he sugar-coated it. "I'm his brother," he said, "I've come here to meet him, but I'm not exactly sure where he is, suffice to say that he's in the area. Would you know?"  
"His brother, hey? What choo name, boy?"  
"The name's Sonic, what's yours?"  
The raccoon appeared mildly distrustful, and looked left and right as though somebody might be spying on them. As if anybody would want to.  
"Jasper. Jasper Raster."  
That was possibly the worst name Sonic had ever heard, but he kept his opinions to himself.  
"How do you know my brother?"  
"Let's just say," Jasper replied, "Dat he and I conducted a little business, yessir. I say dis to you 'cause if you ain't him then you so alike you almost should be him. But usually dis information, it be confideshal, secret-like."  
"Business," Sonic repeated. Now he was definitely interested. "And what business are you in, exactly?"  
"De business of mobian traffic," Jasper replied, "I be a people mover. I get folk to places where dey ain't s'posed to be. For a price, a'course."  
"Okay, and where do you send these people?"  
Jasper chortled, a laugh punctuated by a throaty cough. He lit up a cigarette and began to puff on it.  
"Dere's only two ways to get in to de Arack Empire," he said, "You either got to be a citizen, or you got to be in da company of some guffer who is. No essepshuns. What I do is I make it possible for folk to bypass such bothersome restricshuns."  
"You forge Arack documents."  
"Well now, dat's one awful crude way of putting it."  
"And you got my brother into Sol-Hayyim."  
"Man, I been getting him in and outta dere for tree months," Jasper replied, "He's me best cushtomer." He laughed and puffed on his cigarette.  
"Tell me," Sonic said, "Would you be able to do the same for me?"  
"Well now, dat depends, dunnit. How much you gonna be able to pay for such a service?"  
"I don't have any money."  
"Dat, my friend, is gonna be a problem. A big problem."  
"I'm sorry to hear that." Sonic sighed. "I guess I'm going to have to find another way to get in."  
"Dere's only one way to get in alive," Jasper said, "And dat's my way."  
"Well, we've already ruled that one out, now haven't we?"  
Jasper chortled deep in his throat. "Now now, hold yer horses, hold yer horses. Dere may be another option here, being dat dis is the city of brotherly love and all, and yer obviously rather attached. It jus' so happens dat I've been looking for some guffer who may be able to run a few errands for old Jasper Raster down in rotten old Sol-Hayyim, a few tings dat need doin'."  
"What kinds of things."  
"Oh, dis and dat. Certain tings need to find dere way to certain people."  
"If it's drug running, you can forget it."  
"Not drugs, ya nincompoop! Look, if yer not int'rested-"  
"Okay, okay. Do whatever you need to do to get me in there, and I'll set off in the morning with whatever it is that you want me to take. Just as long as it's not drugs."  
"No drugs."  
"Or guns."  
"No guns."  
"Okay then." Sonic nodded. "Thanks."  
"Don't menshun it. Just be here tomorrow, early. I'll find you."

IX

Sonic was dreaming again, when sleep came to claim him. In his dreams, he was lost in the antiverse city of Chagrin Las Mortis, lost among potholed streets and unkempt buildings. Except there was something distinctly strange - even for _this_ city. There was absolutely nobody around.  
The wind whistled through empty corridors and soundless streets. Sonic ran for escape, the sound of his clicking heels deafening in this ocean of concrete, but there was no end in sight. He was here forever.  
Sonic stopped before an abandoned shop window and gazed into the foggy glass. The display cases were empty, and the shop was covered in spider webs. In the insanity of his dreams, he thought _I better not enter, it's full of spiders and I don't have the right paperwork._  
"Hey there, Sonic."  
Sonic looked around to see who was talking to him in his own voice, but he saw nobody. When he turned back to the window, he saw that it had been his reflection who had spoken. The image in the glass was grinning and tapping its foot.  
"You can't beat me," he told it, "You're just a reflection."  
"Am I?" the reflection asked, "Maybe _you're_ the reflection."  
"That's not true."  
"Truth? What is truth? We never know anything for certain. Faith is inherent in every decision we make every day. Truth is a fiction. Only fiction is truth."  
Sonic ran from the window, away from the mocking image in the glass. But he wasn't looking where he was going, and he tripped on a gutter and fell in a puddle with a splash. The reflection in the water laughed at him.  
"Have a nice trip?"  
"Shut up!" Sonic snapped.  
"You'll fall again, Sonic. You'll fall all the way next time. You will have four Awakenings before your quest is complete, and then you'll fall for me. It's inevitable, dear brother. You'll come to see that I've been right all along."  
Sonic picked himself up and ran again, but the streets were lined with mirrors, and in each one he saw his own face jeering and sneering. Hundreds of mirrors, hundreds of reflections, like a carnival funhouse, and no escape.  
At last he came to a dead end, and faced one of the mirrors. The reflection smiled and shrugged.  
"I'll find a way," Sonic said, out of breath, "I'll find a way to beat you. You are just a reflection."  
"No, we're the same," the reflection replied, and with that it struck out with its fist, emerged from the mirror and struck Sonic in the gut. And on impact, Sonic shattered. He fell to the street in a shower of blue shards.

X

When Sonic awoke in the morning, he was afraid that he might have missed out on Jasper's help, for the raccoon had told him to meet him early, and Sonic had slept in until nine. But after walking outside the shelter and looking about for a few moments, he heard somebody hissing his name from the same shadowy corner where Jasper had emerged the previous night.  
The vagrant raccoon was wearing a backpack and holding a folder full of papers, which he handed to Sonic.  
"Congratulashuns," he said, "Yer now a full citizen of de Arack Empire. In here is everyting you need to slip into yonder Sol-Hayyim, so long as you keep yer cool and don't act suspicious. You gotcha authennic-looking Empire passport, yer certificate of permission to travel - dat's so you can get _out_ again when you wanna leave, people often forget that particular detail - yer birth records and yer occupashun certificates. You gotta show up to work, I'm afraid, dat's important in de Empire, ain't nothin' will get you arrested faster than not doing yer job."  
"Right," Sonic replied, "So what's my job?"  
"Yer workin' in Sector M012, yer a miner, whaddaya tink about dat?"  
"I hate it."  
"Dat's de spirit. Now listen close, dis is the stuff I want you to take in."  
He handed Sonic the backpack. It was very full, and quite heavy.  
"Won't they check this?" Sonic asked.  
"Don't you worry 'bout dat. De stuff is hidden, and dere's a device dat jams dere scanners. As long as you keep yer cool, dey won't tink twice about'cha. Once you get into the city, you'll wanna go down into de mines where ya gonna be workin', and get dis stuff to a weasel by de name of Harvey O'Sale."  
"Harvey O'Sale."  
"Dat's right. Apart from dat, you can do whatever it is dat you wanna be doing in that rotten old city, hope you find yer brother and all dat, but ya need to be unloadin' this stuff as quick as possible, right?"  
"Sure."  
"Den we're finished. Good luck and all dat, and you just remember, if you ever need my services again, you just holler."  
"I'll remember."  
The raccoon vanished into the shadows again, and Sonic hauled his stuff back towards the shelter entrance. Espio was standing there, watching him, eating something that looked like oatmeal out of a bowl. He gave Sonic a wave.  
"Morning, sunshine. Are you hungry? The food is free."  
"Nah, not really."  
"What's in the bag?"  
Sonic put the bag down in the doorway. "I'll tell you in a minute. We've got stuff to talk about." He began flipping through the folder of documents that Jasper had forged for him.  
"Hey, where's Roxanna?" Espio asked.  
Roxanna had been cornered inside the shelter by a group of tough-looking teenage homeless boys. She was answering their questions earnestly, but a few of them were sneering at each other behind her back, and Espio appeared concerned.  
"She's fine," Sonic said, glancing up and then down again.  
Espio shot him a dark look. "Don't say that. She doesn't know anything about our world, you know, she's a naive outsider and it's liable to get her in trouble if we don't look out for her a bit."  
"Well, can you bring her over here? I need to talk to both of you."  
Espio left him to his documents. Sonic glanced down at the backpack he was supposed to carry into Sol-Hayyim with him. _Great_, he thought, _So I'm a smuggler, now. A career criminal again. What a circle my life has taken._  
Espio returned with Roxanna, with the sound of teenage boys laughing in the background.  
"We should take time to discuss our plans for today," the porcupine said.  
"Yeah," Sonic replied, "That's what I wanted to talk to you about. I've figured a way to get into the Arack city. I've spoken to a guy who's able to help us."  
"Great!" Espio replied, "Is that what that's all about?" He pointed to the folder Sonic was holding.  
"That's right."  
"Well, let me just grab our stuff and let's go! The morning's getting on already."  
"Wait," Sonic said, "There's more. Guys, I'm going to go in alone today."  
"Huh? Alone?"  
"Yeah."  
"Sonic, we didn't come along all this way so you can drop us on the front doorstep before you mosey in."  
"I think it's better this way," Sonic said.  
"Sonic! If Cinos is in there somewhere, then we've all gotta go in together! As a team! Remember, the team? Kindred and all that? This isn't about you feeling like you're leading us to our deaths again, is it?"  
"Hey, I'll come back," Sonic explained, "All I mean is that I'm going to check the place out for a day or two, do some espionage, find out what the situation is with Cinos before we bring in the cavalry, guns blazing. We're going into a very hostile environment, we need to be a little delicate."  
Espio laughed. "Dude, every stop on this whole journey has been in a very hostile environment. We can handle this."  
Sonic turned to Roxanna and saw that she was squinting slightly, her head cocked.  
"What are you doing?" he asked.  
"I am reading your aura."  
Sonic smiled. "Oh yeah? And what does my aura look like?"  
"It shows that you are still poisoned with doubt. You are not ready to face him yet. You are wracked with uncertainty. You feel that you will fail."  
"I'm not going to fail," he insisted, "I'm fine. And I'm not going to face him yet. I'm just gonna scope out the place, see if I can figure out the situation. I'll come back for you guys, I swear, when the time is right we'll go in together and we'll finish this. As a team."  
Espio crossed his arms. "Two days," he said, "You've got two days. If you're not back by then, we're going in after you."

XI

The road leading in to Sol-Hayyim was flanked by several heavily-armed soldiers, or drones, who looked like they weren't willing to take anybody's attitude, as was the usual nature of the military of the Arack Empire.  
Arack soldiers wore a standard suit known as a _combatant enhansive carapace_, an armoured bulletproof 'exoskeleton' that fitted over the entire soldier's body and made him three feet taller, as well as replacing his third and fourth hands with deadly plasma rifles. It was always daunting to see an advancing army fronted by two thousand carapace-suited Arack drones, spewing plasma and waves of bullets. It was just as daunting for Sonic to pass by these rows of golem soldiers and try to keep a cool façade.  
Sol-Hayyim looked, at least at first, very much like the city of Terantulopolis that had been built on the site of the fallen Robotropolis. The architecture was much the same - tall, black spires and pointed skyscrapers, everything angular and sharp, built in spirals around the center point - and the city was surrounded by the same solid wall of titanium and sticky webbing. Of course, Sonic had never tried to defraud his way into Terantulopolis, and in fact much of his energy was spent trying to stay out. This was the first time he'd wanted to get into an Arack city badly enough to consult a people-smuggler, and although he had no intention of committing any act of espionage against the Empire itself (this time), he knew that it would probably seem that way, and with the paranoid nature of the Aracks, such a thing would have dire consequences. If he was caught, it might even trigger an international incident. If the Aracks recognised him as a Freedom Fighter, the Empire might even make a move against New Knothole, and that would be a short battle indeed.  
This was a very risky operation. Sally would never allow it. Then again, how many times had Sonic's stupid risks saved the Freedom Fighters from certain death? Sally always refused to answer that one on principle.  
The doors of Arack buildings were something that Sonic could never get used to, and he hoped that the soldiers hadn't seen him shudder when he approached the portal at the entrance to the city. The Aracks had access to some kind of doughy quasi-living material that wasn't quite biological and wasn't quite plastic, and in fact Sonic didn't know exactly what it was, save for the fact that it could mould itself into any shape it was commanded to. The Aracks called it _mandiblax_, and made many things out of it, including most of their doors. When Sonic approached it, the mandiblax door made a dull sucking sound and opened like the mouth of some gelatinous sea creature. Thus it was that entering the Arack Empire felt almost like being swallowed by it.  
There were booths inside the building, almost like bank tellers, each one manned by a secretary spider. Secretaries were a race of spider mobian who stood tall on thin, spindly legs with arms like pipe-cleaners that they could wrap around their bodies three times, had they enough elbows. They were, more often than not, given the menial, boring jobs that involved paperwork and calculation, as they were too physically feeble to be much good in the military or doing hard labour. But secretaries were quick, very quick, and Sonic thought that some of them could almost give even him a run for his money. Almost.  
"Please supply adequate documentation pertaining to your identity and your reason for requesting entry into the city of Sol-Hayyim," one of the secretaries said.  
Sonic calmly and routinely handed over the folder that Jasper Raster had provided him. "I'm a citizen," he said.  
Well, this was it, the moment of truth. Time to see whether Jasper was the genuine article, or just some loon. Sonic discreetly checked the positions of the Arack soldiers. He could still run, given any trouble. The mandiblax door probably wouldn't open, but he was confident that he could spindash through it.  
The secretary flipped through the pages of the documents with lethe efficiency, his buggy eyes zipping from left to right as he read.  
"Interesting, interesting," he said.  
_Just let me through, you dumb bug,_ Sonic thought.  
The spider handed Sonic back his papers. "Everything seems to be in order, here. Now, there is just the matter of the contents of your luggage."  
Two of the guards took a step forward, and Sonic realised with no small amount of shock that he had psyched himself up for this so much that he had neglected to do the obvious and check the contents of his own bag. What if he had been set up? What if Jasper had been bitter about Sonic's demand for free passage, and had stocked the bag with something that would get him arrested on the spot? Too late, now. And one of the guards was now conveniently blocking the door.  
Sonic gulped and handed the pack over to the secretary, who took it in all four arms and began to search it, without a great deal of delicacy. Upon opening the main compartment, the spider froze, and his eyes narrowed.  
_Well, that's it,_ Sonic thought, _Busted. And I barely even got three feet into the city._  
The secretary reached into the bag, and slowly withdrew something... bright pastel pink, and frilly. It was a child's doll. A ballerina in a tutu. With another hand, he pulled out another of the dolls. A pink unicorn, encrusted with glitter and plastic jewels. The spider held them both up with an expression of confusion that bordered on distress. From this angle, Sonic could see into the pack, and saw that it was full of pink, frilly, glittery dolls.  
"Yes," Sonic said, "I'm a collector."  
"Some people collect stamps," the spider said.  
"What a novel idea."  
The secretary stuffed the dolls back into the bag and zipped it up again. Then he ran it through a machine that looked vaguely like an x-ray. It went through smoothly and without incident.  
"Welcome back to the grounds of the Royal Arack Empire," the spider said, "You will report for work at seven a.m. tomorrow morning. Here is the location of your living quarters."  
One of his machines printed off a slip of paper, and the secretary tore it off and handed it to Sonic. The hedgehog took it and reclaimed his pack.  
"Thanks."  
He thought he heard the spiders chuckling as he left the building and entered the nightmarish city of the Aracks.

XII

Sonic had been inside Terantulopolis, and now, wandering the streets of this strange metropolis, he figured that the two cities might as well have been the same. More industrious than creative, the Aracks tended to formulate the most efficient singular design and simply replicate it again and again.  
But the cities of the Arack Empire, although identical to each other, were like an alien world compared to the settlements of other races. Sonic was spellbound by the concept that this had once been a typical Westerican city like Mobitropolis or Station Square. Indeed, so fast and so amalgomated were the Aracks that they could build a house in two days, and when the Empire gained control of a new city, they wasted no time in setting about converting it into a more familiar Arack format.  
The buildings were arranged in spirals, with streets between, and Sonic had no doubt that if one viewed Sol-Hayyim from above, it would look like a web. The buildings themselves were long and flat on the outskirts of the city, and gradually became narrower and taller as they spiralled inward, culminating in the centerpoint tower, an oblisk-shaped skyscraper that housed the autocrat of the city (known as the Sector Lord) and his government. The tower could be seen from anywhere in the city, and Sonic glanced up at it as he walked. A foreboding pillar of black that cast its shadow eastward over the city.  
If there was one key feature of Arack technology that Sonic thought set it apart from any other that he was used to, it would probably be the conspicuous absence of wheels. Such a fundamental necessity for the advancement of any culture, and yet nothing round seemed to exist here among the Aracks. Their vehicles of transportation all hovered or _walked_, shambling along the streets like giant four- six- or eight-legged insects. Some machines even slithered, if that was an accurate enough description, but nothing at all rolled. Angular tram-like vehicles used magnets to speed along rails that ran beside the roads, and every so often stopped to let people off.  
Sonic did notice one distinct feature that separated this city from Terantulopolis; there were a significant number of people living here who weren't spiders. And he supposed the difference came with the fact that Sol-Hayyim was a city assimilated into the Empire, whereas Terantulopolis had been constructed over the ruins of something that was only a mockery of a city, a metropolis whose living population remained static at one. The people living here had been trapped by the Empire that had grown around them like a mold. Those who were unable or refused on principle to leave this city (as Niles had once done) stayed within its walls. They were automatically granted Arack citizenship despite their lack of legs, but who would want it unless they were a spider? Who would be comfortable in a place like this, painted all in shades of black and gray, among monsterous, scampering machines and bizarre metamorphisising pseudomechanical dough? These people had been living here with their families and their careers when the laws of the land had changed around them, and they had suddenly been commanded to work longer and harder, eat and sleep less, and abandon public individuality in favour of a system of colourless, automated protocol. Sonic finally developed a deep understanding of Niles' unwillingness to return here. It wasn't so much the depressing, hateful nature of this place that hurt so much, as it was the memory of what had died to give birth to it.  
Sonic found the building that had been assigned to him as his living quarters. The Arack Empire used a system of apartment blocks not unlike those used in Stratosphereon, except that the City of Clouds had provided luxurious five-star rooms for its citizens, whereas the Empire's rooms were dark, dingy little shoeboxes. The only furniture that was provided were two blocks of mandiblax that could be programmed by the user to take the shape of several preprogrammed items a couch, a table, a desk. Sonic didn't go near them, but noticed to his relief that at least they had given him a room with a regular door. After eating from an unlabelled can of ambiguous soup of unidentifiable flavour and composition, Sonic went to sleep on the floor, wishing he was anywhere else, and hoping for the wishes to become dreams.

XIII

"I'm jealous of Sonic," said Espio, while he worked on a bowl of mashed potato.  
"Jealousy is a vice," Roxanna replied, and smiled.  
"Yeah, yeah. But I am anyway. You know, I've had more fun this year than I've had in my entire life. I had no idea that the world was this... colourful! To think I spent years in a hole in the desert when I could have been out adventuring! Fighting bad guys, travelling around the world, like he does. Apparently he does stuff like this all the time. The stories he's told me..."  
"What a bothersome life," Roxanna said, "I shouldn't want to do this again."  
"That's what I can't understand. Don't you ever feel the urge to leave your sheltered little island and see what's out there?"  
"I've seen what's out here. I've heard you speak of it, too. It would seem that this world is nothing but wars, tyrants and unhappiness."  
Espio laughed, and then the two of them ate in silence for a short while. They listened to Father Matheson asking somebody if they liked anthrax, because if not they probably shouldn't eat the stew.  
"The food here is delicious, however," Roxanna said at last.  
"And how," Espio replied.  
Night began to fall, and Espios thoughts wandered to Sonic, alone in the infamous spider city nearby. What was it like there? Espio had never met a spider, and the first he had ever seen had been in Port Knix, on the western coast, mere weeks ago. On one hand, he was concerned for his friend's wellbeing. On the other, and no less significantly, he wanted to see this city for himself, and remained bitter at being told to stay behind.  
"Hey, Roxanna?"  
"Yes."  
"I wanna ask you something."  
The porcupine looked up at him, brushing the forelocks from her eyes. _Such incredible beauty_, Espio thought, _Invested in one single person. How could a world be considered bad to have created such a thing?_  
"Do you think we're going to live through this?"  
Roxanna looked down again. Such a powerful spirit, and yet she had trouble meeting people's eyes.  
"I cannot assure it," she said, "The prophecy says little of it. And yet, the prophecy is not set in stone. If it were, then there would be no reason for this quest."  
"I don't want to die," Espio said, "Now that I've really seen the world for the first time... I feel like my life has just begun, and for it to end now would be a tragedy. And yet... I feel like I _would_ die, if it came to that, if I had to. You know what I mean? I'm not even sure why. I mean, I don't even believe that Sonic's brother can destroy the world. I think that he'll bring all those rocks together and they'll just do what rocks do, and he'll feel like the biggest chump in the universe. And yet, I'm willing to fight to the death to stop him from doing it. Why do you suppose that is?"  
"I cannot say. Perhaps, now that you have seen beauty in the world, you seek to protect that beauty."  
Espio looked into her amber eyes, though she didn't return the gaze. "Yeah," he said, "Something like that. I never thought I'd say this, but... it seems like for a while, without even realising it, I've just been running on some kind of faith. Not logic, not reason, just faith. That this is the right thing to do. That this is what I _have_ to do."  
"Then that is a faith that we share," Roxanna said, "And I hope that neither of us, nor Sonic, shall need to lay down our lives for this cause. But should you need to make that sacrifice, be content that I shall see you soon upon the island where the departed wait in death."  
Espio smiled and nodded. "If only I could believe that island is really there."

XIV

"You must go."  
Roxanna's meditations took her to the place where the spirits spoke. It was an ancient rite that dated back to before the seeds of civilisation had set. Alastrine, her grandmother, had instructed her well in these rites, but Roxanna had always shown a natural affinity for them. She possessed an uncanny connection to the spirit realm; her ability to see the auras that encapsulated every mobian's soul, her tendency to experience prophetic dreams. These were abilities that Alastrine said her own mother had possessed, and the spirit of Roxanna's great-grandmother was surely alive inside of her. She was a Sunshine Child, a spiritual prodigy, and despite her youth and inexperience, her visions were always taken as powerful omens.  
"He will need you soon. It is not too late, but you must leave now. All Things depend on it."  
While Roxanna dreamed, she received a visitation. One of the spirits called out to her, insisted on her council. A matter of some urgency required her attention. Her role in this Kindred Alliance was about to come to light, she had a part to play and she was late on stage.  
"Who are you, spirit?" she asked.  
In her mind's eye, the astral mists coalesced to produce an image of a being. Roxanna did not recognise this person, this brown-spined hedgehog who appeared before her wearing a cheeky, friendly grin, but she recognised the energy and wisdom of this spirit, and a powerful aura of goodness. His connection was not to her, but to Sonic. He was Sonic's guardian angel, probably had been for a very long time.  
"I will come to him soon. But first he needs you. He will face the darkness very soon, but he is not yet ready. He may think he is, but there is too much doubt in him. If he faces it alone in this state, he will die. He needs more time. Your time, however, has come. And you must go."  
The spirit smiled warmly at her. She basked in that warmth. But not for too long, because time was running out. Her time was now, and she had to go.

XV

When Espio awoke the next morning, he had seen Roxanna's bed already empty. That was enough to inject the first twinges of concern into his heart and gut, for he worried about this girl who knew so little about the world wandering about in it alone. Especially with so many tough-looking thugs hanging about the area all the time.  
The feeling grew when Espio saw that she wasn't in the shelter. Though the bed was in disarray, the porcupine was nowhere in sight. But their bunks had been close together, surely he would have awoken, had she been taken against her will.  
But where would she have gone by herself?  
Espio wandered outside, hoping that she had merely left the shelter for some air. She wasn't out there, not in sight.  
Heading back inside, he began asking people whether they had seen her. Three or four homeless had no idea, being much more interested in where their next meal was coming from.  
Finally, he questioned Father Matheson himself. The wolf priest smiled.  
"Oh yes, the young lady you were travelling with. As a matter of fact, she left during the night. Had a matter of some urgency to attend to, it seemed."  
"What do you mean, she _left_?" Espio snapped.  
"Departed," Matheson replied, "I don't mean left as in the direction of _left_, like, as opposed to right. Nor was I making any insinuations about the young lady's political affiliations."  
"Where did she _go_?"  
"She never said. In too much of a hurry. Oh, but she did leave a message for you."  
After a moment of silence, Espio twirled his fingers in the air.  
"And the message is?"  
"Oh! Right. The message. Well, it doesn't make much sense to me, but she said that _you_ would understand. She said that she had to go, and that you must trust her. She said to take care of the stone, and that you will know when it is your time to act. She also said something about... meeting you on an island, but she was already racing out the door."  
"_Shoot!_ Espio exclaimed, "Whatever happened to teamwork? Why is everybody off fighting Cinos except me?"  
"Are you directing your questions at me, or at a figurative third party representing your own psyche?"  
"Uh, the second thing."  
"Okay. I'll go, then. Good luck, Eugene."  
"Espio."  
"Huh?"  
"Never mind."  
With a sigh, Espio gathered his belongings and began to pack them. The bag with the Rune of Nine inside fell open, and his eyes fell upon the benign-looking stone with its malevolent energy throbbing just behind the realm of visibility. This was madness, how was he supposed to protect this thing alone? They were supposed to be a _team_, but now their Kindred was completely fragmented. Four lost souls, wandering the world apart, easy pickings for whomsoever should desire their elimination. What if Cinos should come knocking? How was he alone to stand in the way of that monster? He'd be dead before he saw it coming.  
One thing was for sure. He wasn't safe here.  
"Thanks, Roxanna," he grumbled, "Thanks, Sonic. Thanks _Niles_. Great work. While everyone remains content thinking there's some kind of mystical freakin' aura of protection keeping this group together, Cinos is just laughing at us. He'll pick us off one by one while we're sitting around waiting for fate to intervene. _God_ isn't going to pull this group back together, so I'm going to have to do it myself."  
He wrapped the Rune in its protective bag, picked up his belongings, and left the shelter. But when he stepped through the open door, he dropped everything and shrieked at the figure approaching from the other direction.  
"_You!_"

XVI

It had taken Roxanna most of the night to make her way to the gates of Sol-Hayyim alone. The city rose up before her in the dark, swallowing the moonlight, its guarded entrance only another kind of wall for one such as she. For although she knew nothing of the Arack Empire from experience, she had learned enough from Sonic and from the people of this world to know that she would never be permitted to walk through these gates, nor would she be able to scale these walls, nor burrow underneath them. Sol-Hayyim was an inaccessable part of this world.  
But only _this_ world.  
Roxanna's father had been an alchemist, her mother an expert weaver. Both were gone, now, her mother in childbirth and her father from cancer fifteen years later. It was her grandmother, Alastrine, who had recognised the child's talent and trained her to focus and enhance it. When she was five she had dreamed of an entire world covered in ice, an arctic world of frozen oceans and mighty snowstorms. Alastrine convinced the village to make preparations following this omen, and behold, a month later, the island of Septennia struggled through the coldest and most forbidding winter in memory. It was a freak natural disaster, hitting suddenly and without the usual warning that precedes such weather, and many lives would have been lost through poor preparation, were it not for Roxanna's dream and Alastrine's wisdom. Since that year, Roxanna had been renowned throughout the land as a Sunshine Child, a girl of vision, a seer, blessed by the spirits.  
Alastrine had taught Roxanna much about the world, and the worlds beyond it. She taught her of the mysteries of the universe, and how a mortal might connect with them. When it came down to it, all anyone really needed was faith. Obstacles, the old porcupine had said, are nothing but the ghosts who haunt you when you take your eyes from your goal. They are false, insubstantial, immaterial. For a Sunshine Child, they aren't real. And if Roxanna ever needed to call upon the spirits to guide her, to summon her precious gift, she only needed to remember her dream, the infant's dream that saved the lives of dozens one horrid winter. She only needed to remember what she had accomplished, what she was capable of. The dream. The ice.  
"Blizzard," she whispered at the dark city that lay spread out before her, at the base of the hill, flanked against the rocky, craggy mountains that rose up like a wart on the world. A few lights glittered in the city, and they sparkled off a great artificial salt lake that the Aracks had built to channel water in from the ocean. The metropolis stood silent, those guards in their terrifying battle suits vigilant and still.  
Roxanna sat down on the dirt road, crossed her legs and closed her eyes. She formed a picture in her mind of a snowstorm, wreaking its cold destruction upon the globe. She pictured the oceans frozen, and mighty glaciers drifting slowly in their all-devouring glide to the sea.  
As she pictured this forbidding winter world, she calmed. Ice was stable, it was strong, and soothing. The winter world was quiet, silent. She focused on this, and only on this, and entered a state of deep meditation.  
What she was about to do was something that could only be done in theory, for no porcupine had attempted it in hundreds, perhaps thousands of years. Although the ability remained, and accessable with less effort than it took to move across a room, it was a forgotten ability. Forgotten deliberately. For until now there had been no reason, and nobody would ever want to. But the time had come to look beyond all of that, for the fate of all things was in peril, and this was the only way.  
While Roxanna's mind travelled to this frozen world, her body travelled too. When the meditation ended, Roxanna woke up in the Lower Realm. The antiverse.  
Sol-Hayyim, the city of the Aracks, was gone. In its place stood a tower in a dead city, a Rune Tower, although this ancient mystic construction appeared almost to be ready to crumble, itself. The city around it had been obliterated by some mighty force. It was little more than a field of fallen pillars, smashed walls, and rubble. There were no lights but for the moon and the stars, but the city was just as silent.  
Roxanna picked herself up and walked toward the ruined city. The entire area sat upon a bed of scorched ground, as though this place had been the site of a catastrophic explosion. It was now a desert of rock and black soil. There was some plant life, but all of it was sick. Whatever had happened here had left its touch upon the land, for this was a dead place, and nothing would grow here. What kind of blast could not only level a city, but poison it as well? Roxanna decided that she would never want to meet the sorcerer responsible for this.  
She entered the silent, destroyed metropolis. Only a short distance would do. She pictured how far she would need to go, perceived a point, and moved toward it without looking around. This silent city frightened her, for she dare not imagine the malevolent spirits that must haunt these pillars and stones.  
"Blizzard," she whispered. "Blizzard. Blizzard."  
A sound behind her broke her halfway out of her meditations, but she shook her head and continued walking. Only her fear, not a real sound. Only her imagination. One of the false ghosts that tempted her to look around, to turn away from her goal. She continued walking, continued to imagine the winter world.  
Only the sound returned, louder. A footstep crunching through rubble, and not her own. Something in this dead, poisoned city was creeping up on her from behind. She heard it breathing, a wet, thick sound. It was enough to finally break her, and she turned around.  
What stared at her was something that might once have been a mobian. It stood on two legs and stared at her with wide, haunting eyes. The sweat on its dark, hairless body glittered in the moonlight, and slowly it reached out to touch her with a mutated hand. Two fingers and a withered, useless thumb stretched out to touch her face, as though this creature hardly believed that she was real. Roxanna's heart thudded in her chest, she panted and trembled, frozen ar the sight of the thing that stood before her. It touched her, and its hand was slimy and gave off a putrid stench that stayed on her skin. The creature was breathing like an elderly person with bronchitis, taking deep, wet gasps.  
Another one stepped out of the shadows further away.  
Roxanna stumbled backward and struggled to reassert herself. Just a few more steps, and she would be where she wanted to be, and she would leave the residents of this dead city in peace. She turned away from the creatures and focused on her destination.  
"Blizzard," she gasped. "Blizzard. Blizzard. Blizzard."  
The creatures behind her pursued intently, and she knew that several had emerged, now. She heard them chattering at each other in whatever alien language it was that they spoke. She tried to block out the wet sound of their words, put her hands over her ears and whispered _blizzard_ so that the word swirled in her head. She pictured snow, delicate and soft and harmless.  
Something grabbed her below the shoulder, and she glanced down at the arm of one of the creatures. She saw to her horror that the creature's arm had sprouted _another_ arm at the wrist, a tiny and withered thing that twitched and shuddered. These creatures had been tainted by the poison that engulfed this land. She saw dozens of them, all around her, emerging from the shadows; some with three eyes, some with none at all, some with horns and some with tentacles. Something cold and wet brushed by her ankle, something else breathed on the back of her neck.  
"Blizzard, blizzard, blizzard," she stammered, and focused only on her destination. Just a few more steps, just a few more.  
A crowd of creatures now surrounded her, and they were becoming rowdy. Dozens of mutated hands with varying numbers of fingers reached out to her, as the miserable creatures of the blasted city vied for one touch of her untainted skin. Wet hands grasped her, groped her, slowed her, threatened to drag her back into the crowd, but she pushed on, just _a few more steps._  
"Blizzard. Blizzard. Blizzard."  
And then something monsterous appeared, something that stood twice as high as the other hobbling creatures, something of enormous girth that stepped out from behind the crumbled walls. A terrifying two-headed thing that shambled on legs like tree trunks. It howled with both of its mouths, and the other creatures scurried out of its way. The king of the creatures leaned toward Roxanna, slobbering and snarling, and grabbed her neck with one powerful paw. Its talons closed around her and began to choke her while it wailed. This was no place for beauty, no place for untainted flesh, and the monster was prepared to choke the life out of her to keep it that way. She closed her eyes and gathered all of her strength to focus, to concentrate, before she blacked out.  
The blizzard swallowed everything. The snow spread across every inch of the globe. Islands were only mountains of ice upon the wasteland of the frozen oceans. Silence dominated. Silence. Like death. And then the sun itself froze over, and plunged all into darkness.  
Roxanna awoke with the talon of the hideous mutant beast still closed over her neck. She thought that she had failed, and prepared to relinquish her life to the monster king, when she realised that the talon was not squeezing. It was a dead weight.  
She lay on the cobbled streets of Sol-Hayyim, beneath its very much intact architecture, staring up into the starry sky. The constellations gazed back at her, twinkling. She reached up and struggled to pry the dead hand from her neck. It fell to the ground and twitched slightly, as though it still believed it was attached to something living. When she had slid back to the Upper Realm, she had mysteriously taken half of the monster's arm with her. It was severed cleanly, with a cut so straight that it would be impossible to replicate with any weapon, and it leaked black, putrid blood onto the paved ground. Its existance would be a fantastic mystery to the residents of this city when it was found in the morning, but Roxanna did not intend to be around to observe. She left the monster's arm where it lay and vanished into the shadows as the sun rose in the east.

XVII

Sonic had never had a need for regular employment. From science experiment to criminal to Freedom Fighter, his life had never fallen neatly enough within the descriptor of _normal_ to make getting a job one of his priorities. But Sonic was a citizen of the Arack Empire, now, albeit a fraudulent one, and it was the only state on Mobius, so far as he was aware, where showing up late to work was an arrestable offense.  
And so Sonic descended into the dark maw of the abyss known as The Pit, the mines from which the city of Sol-Hayyim derived the majority of its resources. He had no idea what he was in for.  
The Pit was just that - a huge, gaping, _pit_ cut into the side of one of the mountains that flanked the city. Extending outward from the main chamber were massive tunnels dug out by huge, powerful machines, and it was inside these tunnels where thousands of mobians worked to extract the minerals that the Empire desired. Sonic had seen the inside of mines before, but this was the largest of such he had ever come across. Looking down into The Pit, he saw an ocean of workers scurrying about, operating machines and digging by hand, and he imagined it was the largest ant colony in the history of Mobius.  
And Sonic, being Sonic, entered into this challenge even somewhat willingly, hopeful that this might even be a fun experience. This hope did not become reality. Sonic was assigned to the task of attacking a wall with a pick that was almost too heavy for him to lift. After three hours of this, he was ready to go home. The shift, however, wouldn't end for another _twelve_ hours. He feared that he wouldn't live to face Cinos after all.  
Looking around at his fellow workers, it was even easier to see down here how the assimilation of this city into the Arack Empire had destroyed the lives of these people. A good number of them - perhaps as many as forty percent - were non-spiders, and Sonic wondered about the sanity of the decision to put all of these people down here. The spiders worked without complaint, with clockwork precision and effortless consistancy. The others, however, were drained and haggard. Sonic could see the pain in the eyes of these people who were wasting away in the most terrible job imaginable. Sonic was already determined to find a way to escape having to do this again tomorrow, and he was well aware that most of these people had been doing this every day for years. That was no life, it was a living nightmare.  
Angry, he struck the wall with the pick, and it dug into the wall so hard that he couldn't pull it out. He swore aloud and tugged. His raw hands screamed in symphony with his aching shoulders.  
"Whoa, whoa there," somebody said, and the tool was grabbed by a second set of hands. Sonic turned to see a weasel, his fur soaked and dripping with sweat, helping him to wrench the pick free. With the added strength, it came loose.  
"Thanks," Sonic panted.  
"Here's a trick," the weasel said, "You hold it like this, and you swing like this." He showed Sonic how to use the tool, and Sonic tried to emulate the motion. "This way, it takes the pressure off your arms and puts it on your gut. Toward the end of the shift, you'll want to kill yourself if you've been working on those arms all day, because they'll ache like heck."  
"Hey, thanks. It's my first day."  
"You want it to be your last, right?"  
Sonic laughed. "Oh yeah."  
"What's your name, kid?"  
"Sonic."  
"Hey, Sonic. I'm Harv. Listen, if you need anything, don't go to the Aracks, you come straight to me, 'kay? We Quads gotta stick together, am I right?"  
"Hey!" came the booming voice of one of the Arack foremen, "No socialising! Back to work, the both of you!"  
Harv gave Sonic a wink and a pat on the back and began to walk away, but Sonic was hit by a realisation and shouted after him.  
"Harv? Harvey O'Sale?"  
The weasel turned around, surprised. "Yeah, that's me."  
"Listen, I've been looking for you. I've got a package for you. From a guy named Jasper Raster."  
Harvey's eyes widened, then he looked around in horror and walked back to Sonic.  
"You keep your voice down about that, you hear me?" he snapped, then looked around again, suddenly paranoid. He came right up to Sonic to whisper to him harshly. "As a matter of fact, I don't even know what you're talking about. I don't know anything about it."  
"Sure you do," Sonic replied, "I can see that you do."  
"We will not discuss this in _public_, you fool. How can I even be sure you know Raster?"  
"Because he's a _jerk_. He filled my bag with girly stuff and sent me through customs."  
Harvey nodded, and looked around again. "Yeah, that's Raster all right. Okay."  
"_Hey! I said get back to work, you slackers! I will not tell you again!_"  
People were looking at the two of them, now, and Harvey looked even more uncomfortable.  
"Don't you ever bring attention to me here, understand? Whatever you have, hold on to it. I will find you later. Don't come looking for me. Don't let people see us talking again."  
With that, he vanished into the crowd of workers. Sonic was left feeling embarrassed and wondering how much trouble he almost caused. In order to avoid further complications, he went back to work, as well as he was able.

XVIII

Espio sat on the curb, drawing pictures in the dirt with his toes. Beside him sat Niles Wilkinson-Price, who ran a finger idly across the design on the face of the Rune.  
"It strikes me that I've simply been a right fool," he said, "A coward of the lowliest sort."  
"Yeah, that's about right," Espio replied, "Sonic was pretty wrecked when you left. He's already terrified that he's going to fail, we're all going to die and that's all somehow going to be his fault. It only made things worse when the group broke apart."  
"I have shamed myself," Niles said, "And now the poor fellow has gone away on his own. Oh how will I ever redeem myself?"  
"Put that away, we probably shouldn't have it out in the open."  
Niles stuffed the rock back into its bag and rested his head in his hands.  
"So what made you came back?"  
The fox shrugged. "I tried to settle down, dear fellow, but I found I couldn't sleep. I consider myself an honest and upstanding gentleman, you see, and yet, over the past months I have made my share of promises, and failed to keep them. This is terribly unlike me, you see. I consider it..."  
"Unfinished business."  
"Precisely. And although I never did promise that I would venture back into that... horrid Empire, I did guarantee that I would carry through until the absolute end, and I wouldn't feel right if I went back on that now. We still have a few miles to go before we sleep, what?"  
"Glad you changed your mind," Espio replied. "Sonic always had faith in you, I think."  
"Oh, we all have faith in each other, my dear, what we need is faith in ourselves."  
Espio looked up at the main street of Meath, the road that led out of town and toward the city of Sol-Hayyim.  
"I told Sonic I'd give him two days," he said, "He's had one. If he's not back tomorrow, we'll have to find a way into that city and find him. Since Roxanna went off on her own, I've been tempted to go in anyway. But, like you, I guess I made a promise I intend to keep. If we leave now, we might be taking this rock straight to Cinos."  
"So we wait?"  
"Until tomorrow. I just hope that Sonic and Roxanna are all right. I think they are... I guess that's just yet another question of faith."

XIX

Sonic worked all day. Although he thought it might kill him, he worked, and he lived. He almost collapsed when it was announced that the work day was over, and estimated it must have been something like eight o'clock at night. What an unspeakable horror to have to sleep eight hours and then return to this in the morning. One wouldn't even have time for anything else. The Aracks, it seemed, had no personal lives outside of their work. Sonic imagined that he might contemplate suicide if faced with such a fate.  
It didn't matter, however, for he wouldn't be returning to work tomorrow. Not having expected the rigidity and time-consuming nature of his undercover occupation, he had wasted an entire day in here without seeing hide nor hair of Cinos, nor learning anything of the Rune that existed here, somewhere. Why couldn't that ratbag Jasper Raster have given him a different job? Because he was supposed to meet Harvey O'Sale and give him his stupid dolls, that was why. Tomorrow he intended to explore the city and find out something useful. He didn't want to report back to his friends and tell them he knew nothing. They were counting on him.  
Sonic's hands were blistered almost to the point of mutilation. His shoulders and wrists hurt like he had been lifting cars all day. His compensation for being so lethe, so agile and so swift was that he wasn't very strong, even by hedgehog standards. Manual labour wasn't what his creators had had in mind for him. It didn't matter to the Aracks, but giving Sonic a pick-axe and putting him in a mine was like giving a fish a pair of wings and throwing it into the air.  
The hedgehog was sifting around his living quarters, investigating the possibility of some bandages or disinfectant (or some hard liquor) when there was a knock on his door.  
He froze. This, he knew, was unusual and worrying. Who would be visiting him _here_? Quickly, he checked his exits. It might be possible, he figured, with some difficulty, to make it to the ground if he climbed out a window, but he was up high. He hoped it wouldn't come to that.  
The knock again. "Who is it?" he called out.  
_If they're coming to bust me, the jig is up. They probably have the place surrounded._  
For a moment there was silence, but then a voice from outside answered him:  
"It's Harvey O'Sale."  
Sonic realised he hadn't been breathing, and exhaled harshly. What the heck did _that_ guy want? Then it dawned on him that he still had the bag full of dolls.  
He went to the door, still a little cautious, and opened it. Harvey O'Sale walked in without invitation.  
"Please, come in," Sonic said, after the weasel was already well inside.  
"You have something for me," Harvey said.  
"Yeah, yeah. Let me find where I put it." He began rifling through drawers.  
"I'm sorry if I was harsh to you this morning," Harvey said, "This package is very important, and very secret. Nobody talks about the Spanner Project in public, even the small stuff. Too much is at stake."  
Sonic dragged out the backpack he had smuggled into the city, and was about to toss it to Harvey, but the weasel shouted "No!" and walked the distance to claim it. Sonic sighed.  
"So why all the secrecy?" he asked, handing the pack over. "You're pretty sensitive about your secret doll obsession. It's okay."  
"No, no," Harvey replied, "It's not the dolls." He unzipped the pack and lifted out one of the dolls, a pink fairy. With the kind of brutal violence that Cinos was usually only renowned for, Harvey grabbed the doll's glittery smiling face and ripped its head right off of its body. Shaking the head carefully, something dropped from the open neck into his palm.  
The purple and orange blunt-spiked object that Harvey now held in his hand was something that Mecha Sonic would have recognised as a _resin-grenade_. Sonic had never seen anything like it, only that it looked like a larger version of one of the jacks that children played with.  
"Great," he said, unimpressed.  
"We only recently discovered a method of jamming the Aracks' scanners," Harvey explained. He pulled out another doll. "The device is inside the mermaid."  
"So what do you intend to do with all this stuff?" Sonic asked, "What's the Spanner Project?"  
"You don't know?"  
"Raster didn't tell me anything."  
Harvey obtained that mildly paranoid expression again, looking left and right, and keeping his voice down. "The Spanner Project," he said, "As in, 'spanner in the works'. You were there today, in those wretched mines. You know as well as anyone what a nightmare the Empire makes of our lives. We Quads make up almost half of the workforce, and we're exploited way beyond the limits of reason. Life in The Pit is insane."  
"I see what you mean, but what are Quads?"  
"You're a Quad. I'm a Quad. If you have four less limbs than the number required to live a comfortable life in the Arack Empire, you're a Quad. And we intend to turn the tides on this madness. We're going to send a message direct to the Sector Lord, direct to the _Webb_, that we won't take it anymore. We'll do it by grinding this entire city to a halt."  
"Who are 'we'?"  
Harvey shook his head. "I don't even know everyone who's running the project. Everybody just knows as much as they need to, and I'm not very high on the ladder. The whole thing is masterminded by a guy named Ronin Shapesk, I don't even know what he looks like."  
_Ronin Shapesk_, Sonic thought, _That name doesn't really sound right._  
Aloud, he said, "And you're going to grind this whole city to a halt, using these little purple things?"  
"They pack quite a punch," Harvey replied, "Some of the most powerful explosives that you can find anywhere."  
"Oh great," Sonic sighed, "I told that jerk I wasn't doing this if it was weapons I was smuggling. I have no intention of being associated with some kind of terrorist attack, even if it's spiders you're bombing."  
"Do I look like a _terrorist_ to you?" Harvey snapped, "We're not killing anybody, except this evil machine of exploitation. It's been planned to the smallest detail. Sol-Hayyim imports a huge amount of water from the ocean for the city's drinking supply. It's stored in a massive artificial lake, desalinated and purified. The lake is right near the mines, and one shaft in particular shares a wall with it. That's the key. These tunnels are normally guarded around the clock, even at night, with one exception. During the day, the miners are given a fifteen-minute break that happens to _coincide_ with the guards' scheduled break. For fifteen minutes a day, the mines are empty. And in two days, the Spanner Project is going to strike."  
"You're going to flood The Pit," Sonic said.  
"The Pit provides this city with the vast majority of its resources," Harvey said, "Drowning it is like poisoning a weed's roots. What could be a more powerful message than that? _Hundreds_ will be liberated. The Empire will be forced to re-evaluate its policy on Quad citizenship rights."  
"Glad I could play a part," Sonic said glumly.  
"You take care," Harvey said, and gathered the dolls back into the bag. "Tomorrow will be the final day for this nightmare of a city. After that..." He winked and smiled, and with that, he took his bag and left.  
Sonic closed the door behind him, and resumed his search for first aid, fretting over what he had just heard. Something told him that Ronin Shapesk's project of liberation wasn't going to go quite as well as Harvey's idealistic dreams. Not quite.  
He hadn't walked far before he heard another knock on the door, and sighed. What did that guy want _now_? He returned to the door and opened it.  
What he saw on the other side almost shocked him to death.

XX

"What are _you_ doing here?" Sonic demanded.  
Roxanna looked up and down the halls timidly, and then into Sonic's living quarters.  
"I had to come. It was necessary."  
Sonic's initial feeling of anger was quickly swallowed by relief, and he pulled the porcupine inside, closing the door behind her and locking it.  
"Well, come in! Are you all right? How did you get here?"  
"I saw you and I followed you to where you were living," she replied. "I saw that somebody was in here with you, so I waited until he was gone."  
Sonic shook his head in disbelief at Roxanna's resourcefulness. Espio had been concerned about her fragility, her naivete in this world and her youthful inexperience, but obviously he had nothing to worry about. How had she infiltrated the city of the paranoid Aracks? A realisation came to him.  
"You came here through the antiverse, didn't you."  
"I never want to return there," she replied, a dark cloud of bitterness passing over her face. "Ever."  
Roxanna had brought with her a small pack with several satchels of medicines and herbs from her island home of Septennia. They found some bandages, and Roxanna helped him dress his wounded hands with bloodleaf ointment. While she worked, Sonic talked about what he had learned.  
"There's an uprising brewing here," he said, "In two days they're going to try to flood the mines and break the Aracks' means of production, all under the direction of some guy named Ronin Shapesk. That's all fine and dandy, but there's one little problem. Ronin isn't really Ronin. He's Cinos."  
"How can you be certain?" Roxanna asked.  
"I only just figured it out. _Ronin Shapesk_ is what you call an anagram. Rearrange the letters and you get Kinnos Sharpe, another one of Cinos' aliases. It's something that only I would be able to work out, and I think that's exactly what he wanted me to do."  
"Why is that?"  
"How should I know? He just likes to play stupid games. I know, because it's the kind of dumb thing that _I'd_ do, and we share the same sense of humour. Maybe he wants me to know he's out there, he's pulling the strings and there's nothing I can do about it. But at least that solves a mystery. We know where he is and we kinda know what he's up to. What we don't know is why, and what all this has to do with the Runes. To tell you the truth, it really has me spooked."  
"Spooked?"  
"Yeah. I mean, think about it... why the heck would _Cinos_ go out of his way to plan and implement a project to _liberate_ hundreds of people from oppression? I can't work it out. This is the last thing I'd expect him to be associated with. Unless, of course, there's something deeper that I'm not seeing. He's gonna do something bad. Real bad. I don't know what it is, and I can't even warn anybody, because everyone thinks he's their saviour."  
"What do you propose we do?"  
"Well, you're staying here, and _hiding_. It's dangerous for you here, that's why I didn't want you guys here in the first- _ouch!_"  
Roxanna had squeezed his hand in the wrong place, and a dart of pain shot up his arm. She looked up at him, frowning.  
"It is about time that you begin seeing this for what it is," she snapped, "We are Kindred. You are not our leader and you should not profess to be. Nor are you the architect of this quest. We have found each other, and we now walk as one, united. Believe it or not, Sonic Hedgehog, there are forces higher than you making the rules. The first time you swept us to the side, you threatened everything."  
"Oh, how did I _threaten everything_, Roxanna? Tell me that."  
"I have business here," she said, "With you. Very soon. Had I not been here, you would very likely die when my presence became necessary. There is a certain spirit who has taken an interest in our quest, and it is he who came to me and informed me that it was folly for me to stay behind."  
"How am I supposed to know these things?" Sonic demanded, "You're the one who talks to the spirits and all that guff, I don't. You're the Sunshine Child, not me. I'm just following my intuition, here, because _I don't know what else to do_. What more am I supposed to do? What do you expect of me?"  
"Only _faith_," Roxanna replied.  
"What, in Mazsha? In some dead religion that a dozen people in the entire world follow?"  
"It does not matter what _name_ you give to the Spirit From Whence All Comes. It does not even matter what rituals you choose to follow, all you need is to have a little faith that there is a force out there, a force more powerful than you or I or the Dark Twin or anybody, a force that _wants us to succeed_."  
"Well why doesn't it just get off its holy butt and _tell_ me what to do?" Sonic knew as soon as he had said it that it was a silly thing to say. In his head, the voice of Father Thaldymort immediately answered his question.  
_You can only be shown choices. It is up to you to make them._  
Roxanna shook her head. "It speaks to you every day, it is you who does not listen."  
"Okay, fine," Sonic sighed, "I get it. So we know that Cinos is planning so move in two days. What we have to do, _both_ of us, is get at him sooner. Tomorrow. We'll find him and we'll stop him."  
"We will find him," Roxanna replied, "And when the time is right, we will stop him."

XXI

Morning arrived in the Arack city of Sol-Hayyim as it always did - the city awoke like it was alive, as though it were a creature of flesh and blood, springing up from its sleep, ready to face the day. Insectile machines trundled out from their cavernous hiding places and crawled along the streets like monsterous parisites.  
Much of Sonic's energy this morning was focused on the task of simply making sure that Roxanna did not appear conspicuous. It was, he feared, a battle that he was losing. The porcupine girl simply did not look like somebody who had been forced for any length of time to live under the governance of the Arack Empire. Whenever one of the transports trundled past, she gaped in awe, pointed and marvelled. She looked like a tourist, and tourists were an anomoly in the Arack cities. So much so that it was likely to prompt the paranoid authorities into suspicion. Sonic was relatively safe on his own (although his documents wouldn't hold up to that much scrutiny, he figured), but Roxanna had sneaked into Sol-Hayyim without any kind of documentation. She was an illegal alien, and would be revealed as such if she was so much as questioned. Sonic would be busted simply for his association with her.  
"Don't look at them," he warned.  
Roxanna turned to him, puzzled. "How am I not to look at them? I cannot control what my eyes perceive."  
"Sure, but don't _gawk_. You've gotta look like you've been living here a long time. You've gotta pretend that you've seen all this every day for years."  
And so Roxanna made an effort, but even so, it was clear that there were many things that she did not understand. It frustrated Sonic no end, but he bit his tongue - after all, she wasn't simply a lost child entrusted to his care, no matter how circumstances might paint her. She was one quarter of a whole, and despite her weaknesses, it was her unique abilities that made her an inseperable and equal part of this group. As she had told him the night before, Sonic was not a leader this time, only a colleague.  
The mission today was to locate Cinos, and it was not a simple proposition. Logical reasoning suggested two things - one was that his assigned occupation probably had something to do with the mines. The second conclusion came about through Sonic's certainty that his evil clone's interest did not lie with either the liberation of Sol-Hayyim's oppressed 'Quads', nor with the weakening of the Arack Empire through some kind of rebel upsurge. The only explanation for his having engineered this elaborate plot was that he had some kind of innate interest in the mines themselves. There was some reason why he desired access to both The Pit and a whole lot of explosives, something was down there that could only be obtained by blowing something up.  
Sonic didn't need three guesses to figure out what that something was.  
And so, in order to locate Cinos - who Sonic was coming to affectionately know as the _Devil Twin_ thanks to Roxanna - the two headed back toward the mines at the edge of the city. Sonic, however, was unwilling to venture too close. He had no intention of being spotted and sent back to work again. He thought he would rather risk spending time in an Arack prison.  
The Pit stood against an outcrop of rocky mountains, and from the vantage point that Sonic had settled upon, he could see them as well as the Aracks' great artificial lake. It was a simple and yet ingenius work of engineering; water was channeled from the ocean through a system of pumps and aqueducts, and filtered into this reservoir. From there, it was purified and desalinated, using technology that even the advanced nations of Mobius had yet to perfect and implement, to turn sea water into clean drinking water.  
All of this sandwiched against the mining operations from where Sol-Hayyim obtained most of its raw materials, and which probably benefited the neighbouring Arack cities in much the same way. This mine was probably an important asset for the Empire's colonisation and expansion into Westerica. In fact, if the so-called Spanner Project went ahead, Sonic figured that not only would it grind Sol-Hayyim to a cataclysmic halt, it would probably significantly stunt the Empire's growth, at least for a time. It might even directly affect Sally Acorn herself, assist her directly in gaining the political and military leverage required to re-establish the monarchy and fill the Westerican political vacuum, before the Empire could. Cinos' selfish crusade could inadvertantly begin the chain reaction that wins the war that began when Robotnik collapsed Mobitropolis.  
Sonic was suddenly struck by a strange philosophical enigma that dug at his perception of this entire quest, a paradox regarding the nature and definition of both good and evil:  
If a murderous and completely immoral individual commits a selfish act, an intrinsically villainous act, that happens to directly result in the liberation of thousands of people from tyranny or death, is that person not in fact a _hero?_  
Sonic wondered if Cinos would appreciate the irony (and he probably wouldn't) that despite his inverted morality and his backward soul, his love of all things twisted and perverse, in the end _he had become a Freedom Fighter_.  
What was worse was that Sonic was going to stop at nothing to make sure Cinos did not succeed in his inadvertantly heroic plans. The one event that might sincerely turn the tide of this war in the Freedom Fighters' favour, and it was Sonic who was going to intervene to prevent it. So what did that make _him?_  
Was this just another example of Sonic's small acts of heroism benefiting the growth of a greater evil? He didn't want to think about it. This was not the time.  
"So, what now?" he asked aloud, "Are the spirits telling you anything?"  
Roxanna did not recognise Sonic's sarcasm. She shook her head. "I would think, though, that if the Devil Twin is in those caves, we should need to obtain access."  
"I was afraid of that. Man, if I had my way I wouldn't go near that place again for as long as I live. But, if I gotta... I guess we should see if there's some back way in, somewhere we can get in without being seen and put to work."  
Sonic and Roxanna approached the mines from another angle, following the pipelines that took water from the treatment plants around the lake and led into the city's water supply. As they moved, Sonic kept his eyes on those mines, watched as dozens of wretched unfortunates entered The Pit for another gruelling day of hard work. His heart went out to them, but their plight was not currently his concern. His business today was to prevent their liberation, not to grant it.  
(Don't think of it that way, Sonic! Don't even think about them at all.)  
But he couldn't help it. He had spent a single day in those mines, and that was enough for him to know that there was very little he wouldn't be willing to do to avoid another day. These people were doomed to this every day of their lives. Their only chance was that the Spanner Project might go ahead and wash away their oppression. But if that happened, Cinos would yet again be one step ahead, would achieve yet _another_ victory in his near flawless record.  
Sonic knew that there was one very surefire way that he could stop tomorrow's events from happening - and that was that he could tip off the Empire authorities as to the unfolding plot. The paranoid Aracks would stop it faster than he could blink. However, the inescapable consequence of this would be that the Empire would clamp down harder on its resident Quads, and the orchestrators of the Spanner Project would face some harsh and likely mortal punishment. Sonic equated this with turning the Freedom Fighters in to Robotnik. He would consider this in itself to be an evil act, and make him no better than Cinos. It was something he could never bring himself to do.  
What was more, he knew that Cinos would laugh at this predicament. For it was he who many a time had pointed out that the only way Sonic could achieve level ground with his nemesis would be when he resorted to evil acts, as it was his moral hang-ups that held him back. It was Cinos who predicted that Sonic would "fall for him", see things from his perspective, and ultimately embrace evil in order to succeed.  
And, when that time came, he may not even defeat Cinos after all. What reason would there be to fight, when both parties would essentially agree?  
"Hey Ronin! _Ronin!_"  
At first, Sonic didn't even notice that somebody was shouting at him. It was, after all, not his name. But after a moment the shouts penetrated his deep thoughts, and he recognised that the name being shouted was familiar. _Ronin_ was the pseudonym that Cinos was using.  
He spun around and saw a rabbit in an oily work uniform waving for his attention. It wasn't the first time he had been mistaken for Cinos, and it was the one benefit he could see in resembling the dark hedgehog. If he could infiltrate his enemy's social circles, he might be able to track down the real Cinos, as well as find out his plans.  
The rabbit was standing just inside the entrance to one of the water treatment plants that surrounded the lake. He had a distressed expression, and was waving for Sonic to approach.  
"Wait here for a second," he said to Roxanna, "Keep out of sight."  
Warily, he put on his best Cinos impression and walked toward the rabbit.  
"What are you doing?" the stranger demanded, "Buddy, you come late to work again, and you're gonna be in some _serious_ trouble, you dig? These spiders, they don't mess around."  
"I do what I like," Sonic snapped, "You think they scare me?"  
"Man, you're crazy," the rabbit lamented, "Come on, you still got time. Just hurry, okay? They got you working down section T, today, on the secondary filters. And they're not gonna give you many more warnings, take it from me."  
With that, the stranger walked away, shaking his head and muttering to himself.

XXII

Roxanna was concerned about Sonic's aura.  
The ability to perceive the aura of the people around her was not one over which Roxanna had terribly much control. It simply came on unexpectedly for a few moments at a time, and then went away. Somebody less trained in the nature of such things might pass it off simply as some anomolous vision problem, but to Roxanna it was a powerful tool of insight.  
She saw Sonic speaking to a rabbit that she did not recognise. Both were surrounded by what appeared a little like coloured mist. It swirled about their bodies, danced almost like it had a life of its own. This was the haze of their souls, the radiance of their very essence. And from the colours and patterns in these auras, Roxanna could divine the emotional state of the person themselves.  
The rabbit, the stranger, was simple. He was suffering stress and anxiety, he was worn out and concerned for his future, but his concerns were largely superficial. About him, Roxanna cared not at all. Sonic, however, was going through much deeper turmoils. He was fundamentally unsure about his very identity. His faith in himself was dwindling, drained by defeat after defeat at the hands of his Devil Twin. He had allowed his twin to get inside his head and start rattling around. Cinos, after all, was more than simply Sonic's enemy. He was Sonic's negative thoughts themselves, skimmed off and poured into a hedghehog-shaped mold. Cinos knew _exactly_ what to say to slice through Sonic's ego and hit a nerve, he knew all the buttons to push, all the triggers. He had a knowledge of Sonic's mind that nobody else could ever hope to match, and his psychological attacks were eroding Sonic like water on sandstone. If Sonic continued down this path, then it would be merely an empty shell of a hedgehog that faced Cinos at the end. The Devil Twin would simply breathe on Sonic, and he would fall over.  
The auras faded before Roxanna's eyes. The spirits had relayed their warning to her, and she had understood.  
Sonic returned with a smile on his face, a smile that she knew was only superficial, hiding a deeper anguish.  
"I should have seen it!" he exclaimed.  
"What have you learned?" Roxanna asked.  
Sonic looked back towards the water treatment plant. "Cinos doesn't work in the mines. How could he? If he had been there, somebody would have recognised _me_, just like that guy did. I'm the only blue hedgehog who works in The Pit. Cinos works _here_. Whatever he's really planning, I have a feeling the evidence is in there. Come on, I'll sneak you in with me."  
Roxanna nodded, and followed, wary of Sonic's brewing inner turmoil. Soon her time would be up as a member of Sonic the Hedgehog's Kindred. She would soon be leaving the path. She hoped with all her might that she would leave him on the road to inner recovery. For this, she prayed.

XXIII

Work Sector W125 was the code for this, one of many water treatment plants that served the metropolis of Sol-Hayyim. The mandiblax doors opened with an almost alive sucking-sound that made Sonic shudder, and he feared that Roxanna might react worse. She tried not to, remembering Sonic's advice.  
Keeping away from people as much as they were able (Sonic didn't want to be mistaken as Cinos too often, lest he risk being called on his bluff, and he especially didn't want to have to explain Roxanna's presence too often), Sonic and Roxanna descended into the belly of the facility, where pipes full of rushing water ran alongside the walls. People, many of them spiders, worked at consoles, redirecting the flow of liquid around the plant and doing various things that Sonic wouldn't have the first clue about.  
He thought of Cinos working shifts here, doing a healthy day's work for the first time in his existence. It seemed he wasn't beyond the ability to make sacrifices for this crusade. His covert operation in Sol-Hayyim had been surprisingly delicate, showing that he had learned something of patience in the past year. Sonic considered himself to have grown up significantly along the course of this journey, and interestingly, it seemed Cinos had done the same.  
As they moved through the plant, Sonic happened to pass several rooms where dozens of people in white coats milled about at once, each performing their assigned duties, around some kind of giant machine into which scores of pipes converged. Some of these machines had windows on their sides, and Sonic could see the water sloshing around inside, undergoing various degrees of purification. To his horror and disgust, he saw that the water at each stage of this process was being pumped through mandiblax devices that looked like giant worms or leeches, sucking water in one end and spitting it out the other. He wondered whether the people who worked here thought differently about the water they drank through the taps, and whether they opted for fruit juice instead.  
Deeper inside the facility, several floors below ground level, they came to a chamber that looked as though it had been constructed as an engineers' access area, in the bowels of the plant. It was dimly lit, and lined with iron scaffolding. The ground was ordinary dirt. This would seem to have been the base of the facility.  
Dominating an entire wall of the chamber was a huge window, on the other side of which was water. It looked like one massive tank. Sonic realised that it was the lake - only a pane of thick glass stood between them and thousands of tons of seawater. He could see sand and seaweed on the other side, and small fish that had escaped the ocean to live in what was essentially the biggest fish tank in the world.  
"I still can't figure out exactly what it is that Cinos wants to do," Sonic said. "We can only assume that this whole Spanner Project thing has been designed to make the last Rune accessable, I mean, that's all that he cares about. And the stone is buried, so we can assume that he's found it in the mines somewhere. It's been dug up, or it's about to be. But what I don't understand is... Cinos is going to _flood_ the mines. That'll put the rune underwater, won't it?"  
Roxanna looked up at the glass window, watching the fish circle mindlessly in the cloudy water. "Perhaps," she said, "The Rune is not in the mines at all."  
"How do you figure?"  
"Perhaps it is in there." She pointed at the glass.  
Sonic looked back into the cloudy depths. "Hey, yeah. That makes sense. The Aracks just scooped out a big crater in the ground when they put this lake here. Maybe they uncovered something... if the rune is underwater _already_, then draining the lake into the mines will actually bring it to surface."  
"Sonic. There is something I wish to speak with you about."  
"Hm?" Sonic was clearly deep in thought, staring into the glass.  
"_Sonic_."  
The hedgehog turned to her. "Yeah, I'm listening. What is it?"  
Roxanna took a deep breath and looked into his eyes. "I still sense much doubt in you. You try to hide it, and you have probably fooled the others, but your aura gives you away."  
"What are you talking about?"  
"You fear that if you face him, you will fail. You fear that his success is inevitable, that he is more powerful."  
Sonic sighed and averted his eyes from her gaze. "Cinos has gotten the better of me more often than vice versa. He and I both know it. He loves it, he thinks it's hilarious."  
"His words are trickery," Roxanna said, "Designed to force you to question yourself, to question your faith. You cannot listen to him. He is your Devil Twin, he possesses no ability that you do not share."  
"I know he's deliberately trying to get to me," Sonic replied, "What I fear most is that he has a point. Shortly after I set out, when Cinos and I were trapped together in the Chameleon Cabal, I knew that either of us could escape the cage any time we wanted. We both had that ability. The only problem was that, to escape, we would probably have to kill people. Cinos has no hang-ups about murder, but I do. At the end of the day, while we both had the same _ability_, only one of us was willing to do what it took. _That's_ what I fear. All my life I have lived with the belief that good always triumphs over evil, because morality is more powerful than immorality. What I fear now is that this is a romantic fallacy, because, more and more, I'm seeing that it doesn't stand up very well against cold logic. If you don't _have_ any morality, you can do literally anything you like. People like you and I, who consider ourselves moral people, we might be strong, but we always have these barriers in our minds, saying _Oh, I can't do that, it might hurt somebody,_ and _Oh, I can't go out and fight evil, I have to protect my friends_. It weighs on your potential. One of my enemies, Zero Tolerance, always goes after my friends first, because he knows that they are my weakness, and he doesn't have the moral barrier that prevents him from fighting dirty. And you know what? Zero's probably come closer to killing me than anyone. I form attachments with people, and then my mind gets all clouded up with worry. I make mistakes, I lose focus."  
"You fear for our safety," Roxanna said, "The safety of your friends."  
"Well, yeah. Heck, I love you guys, all of you. Love is great, but I'm afraid that it really does make a person weak. I know that you're all willing to risk yourselves for this quest, and I realise that you'd still go ahead even if something happened to me, but I'm still afraid- I'm afraid that when it comes to the crunch, I'll protect you guys first, even to the detriment of the mission. I'm afraid that if beating Cinos requires any of you to sacrifice yourselves, it's just not a length I'm willing to go to. It doesn't seem right. I'm trapped by my love and my morality, I won't be able to do what it takes."  
"If the Devil Twin succeeds, then we will _all_ die. We will probably suffer worse fates at the end than any of us could meet with along the way."  
"I realise that, but... I dunno. This haunts me. I don't think I've ever told you, but years ago I used to have nightmares about snakes. Every night. They were the bane of my existence. I got over it, but... since I set out on this quest, I've been having nightmares again. Not about snakes, though. Cinos has replaced the snakes. Often it's a street lined with mirrors, but _he_ is the reflection in all of them, and he laughs at me. He tells me that my morality is my weakness, and that I am going to have to _fall for him_ before I can beat him, that I'm going to have to embrace evil in order to defeat him. I'm afraid that the sacrifice of my friends is the evil that I am going to have to embrace."  
While Sonic was speaking, he was leaning with his back against the window that held back the lake. His hand slid along the glass, and came into contact with something soft and gooey.  
"Oh, _gross_," he spat, "Somebody stuck their chewing gum on the glass."  
"You put your faith in logic," Roxanna said, "And logic has its place. Rationality and practicality has allowed my people to live from the bounty of our island for millennia. But it is a wise person who sees that logic is not everything. Truth and fact are deceptive concepts, and a skilled person knows how to twist them to his advantage, to use them to manipulate. That is why we also embrace faith, because faith is static. Indestructible, so long as your _mind_ is strong."  
"Sure, but I-"  
Sonic looked down again at the gum on the glass. A huge purple wad of it. More than he would be able to fit in his mouth. "That sure is a heck of a lot of gum," he said, warily. Where had he seen something like that before? He touched it again, and it was so sticky that he had trouble wrenching his fingers back.  
"I would not know," the porcupine replied.  
"Hey Roxanna, why do you suppose Cinos isn't down here today, anyway? This is where the Aracks have assigned him to work, and he would _know_ that not showing up to work has dire implications here. Why would he risk becoming suspicious to the authorities, now that he's so close to pulling off this huge operation?"  
Realisation had filled Roxanna's eyes, now. "He knows something that we do not," she said.  
"Maybe it doesn't matter whether he acts suspicious or not," Sonic replied, "Maybe it's too late... Oh my gosh, I can't believe I didn't see this before."  
"What have you realised?"  
"Roxanna, Cinos _isn't bound by morality_. The reason that the Spanner Project has been scheduled for tomorrow is because that is when everybody associated with it will be expecting it, and they'll be able to make sure it happens safely, that nobody gets hurt. But Cinos won't care about that. As far as he's concerned, he can set this whole thing in motion whenever he feels like it. He can blow the lake as soon as he has the ability to do so. And _I delivered his bombs last night_."  
"He is going to move early," Roxanna said.  
"Yeah. He's gonna move _today_, that's why he's not here. And there's something about this gummy stuff that has me worried, because I've seen it somewhere before, only-" His eyes widened. "_Mecha Sonic_."  
"I beg your pardon?"  
"This thing was stuck to Mecha, I kicked it and it blew him to smithereens. It's some kind of explosive. I think this is the stuff I smuggled in."  
He stood back from the window, and saw more of the purple wads. At least three of them, stuck to the glass at regular intervals. "Holy crap," he choked, "This whole place is rigged."  
Each of the purple wads had something buried in its center, and Sonic had little doubt that they were detonators. At least one of them went off while he was speaking. A small click and a loud spark. The entire wad began to glow bright red.  
"Run," Sonic warned.  
"What do-"  
"_Run!_"  
Sonic bolted, grabbing Roxanna as he passed by, forgetting momentarily that she could not run as fast as he could. They ran toward the stairs that led up to the next level of the facility, but a mind-shattering explosion obliterated the glass wall that held back the lake. A tsunami of dirty, salty water burst into the chamber, sweeping both of them from their feet. Sonic's head collided with something metal, and he saw stars. Disoriented, he siezed up, making no effort to escape the rushing water.  
A scream from Roxanna snapped him out of his daze. He could not see what had become of her. The water rushed into the facility with breakneck force, pitching him under the waves again and again. He realised to his dazzled horror that the both of them could be killed very easily, should the water dash them against something with enough power. That was if they didn't drown first. Sonic was having a difficult time staying above water.  
"_Roxanna!_" he screamed, but the sound of the rushing water smothered his voice. He tried to swim against the flow, but it was pointless. After all these years in situations like this, Sonic wondered, _Why the heck have I still not learned how to swim?_  
The tide weakened, and the facility began to fill up. Then, there was another explosion, and the water began moving again. Cinos was systematically blowing out walls, directing the water toward the mines. Whatever was in the water moved with it. Sonic's nose and eyes were full of salt, and his struggle to breathe was made all the more difficult by his uncontrollable coughing.  
Roxanna was nowhere in sight.  
Sonic ceased his efforts to defeat the water, and focused his dwindling energy on merely avoiding death. A sharp outcrop of metal zipped past his face at such speed that it could have taken his head off without slowing him down. There was a hole blown into the ground, and Sonic was ripped through it like an invisible chain was locked around his ankle. He scrambled for air, but there was no longer any surface to find. He hadn't even had a chance to take a deep breath. He was being pulled down, down, down...  
And then he was in the air again. The water, now dark red with mud, roared out of a tunnel that exited into the mountain caves preceding The Pit, and Sonic took in a desperate, hoarse gasp of air before being pulled under again. It was probably pointless, because he knew that these tight, rocky caves would kill him even more quickly than the facility. Being dragged through these caves would break his bones in so many places that he would come out the other end looking like a sack full of rocks. Though he had pleasant fantasies of being washed up onto dry land, dusting himself off and walking away unharmed, he knew that it was a ridiculously unlikely scenario. Realistically, it would be a miracle if he came out of this alive.  
As he prepared for the messy death he was about to endure, he found that he wasn't terrified. He wasn't even afraid. In fact, all he could think about was how futile everything turned out to be. For a whole year he had been caught up in the fantasy of being some kind of Chosen One, of being fated by some higher power to save the world, exploring ideas of God and spiritual reawakening and Higher Purpose, only to find out that the entire fiasco could end with something as trivial as entering a chamber at the wrong moment. The idea of the universe as some structured system of significance and importance collapsed upon itself, as Sonic realised that it was all meaningless after all. The universe was a feeble, random conglomerate of cause and effect, his life and death simply a spin of the dice, no more complex than a line of dominoes pushing each other over. He was going to die, and no amount of faith or fate was going to save him.  
Sonic closed his eyes.

XXIV

It took Sonic a few moments to realise that he wasn't moving. The water was yanking him with incredible force, sucking him toward the twisting caves that called him to his death, but he wasn't answering that call. He was snagged on something.  
Sonic squinted through the rushing, abrasive salt water to see what had gone awry. He expected to find himself skewered on a piece of shrapnel or a jagged rock. Instead, he found that something was clamped on his wrist, and he was dangling on the end of his own arm like a fish on a hook. The water pulled him with such force that he thought it might even dislocate his shoulder. Slowly, though, he found himself being winched with no small effort out of the tide. The water desperately fought for purchase, but its hold on him weakened progressively as less of him remained under the waves.  
Soon, he found his strength again, and managed to supplement his rescuer's efforts by climbing the rock. He pulled himself up to a level surface, and rolled onto his back, panting and trembling. The water roared beneath him. He looked up, and saw that it was Roxanna who stood above him. She, too, dropped to her knees and then onto her back, lying beside him.  
"You saved me," Sonic panted.  
"Yes."  
"How?"  
"I am the best swimmer in my whole village. It appears that you would not be able to say the same for yourself, judging by the way you floundered."  
"Oh, I _floundered?_"  
"Yes. You swim like driftwood."  
Sonic smiled. "Thank you," he said.  
"Do not concern yourself. It is why I am here, why we were brought together. I possess the skills that you lack."  
Sonic picked himself up, weakly. He felt as though his skin had been stripped off with sandpaper, and he knew that he had suffered several bruises that would be getting worse before they got better. He had, however, been saved before he could break any bones.  
Roxanna had pulled him onto a rocky ledge that opened into the mountain caves. Just below, the water from the lake roared past, like a river, but one more fierce than Sonic had ever seen before. He knew that it was filling up the mines as he watched, and could only imagine the chaos that was unfolding in the city of Sol-Hayyim.  
As he watched, he heard a terrible sound right behind his head.  
The cocking of a gun-hammer.  
_Click-click._  
Slowly, very slowly, he turned his head. The enemy stood behind him with the barrel of a pistol in his face, and stepped back toward the dark and winding caves, out of his reach.  
"Hello, Rasputan," Sonic said.  
"Hello-hello," the porcupine replied, his eyes darting back and forth from Sonic to Roxanna, "Did you come to watch the show, or just to play on the water-slide?" He nibbled the fingernails of his free hand, his mood-ring glittering a radiant yellow.  
"The sidekick's here," Sonic said, "The king of the clowns can't be too far."  
As if summoned, Cinos stepped out of the shadows, smiling as one does when meeting up with an old friend. He took the gun from Rasputan (who was actually reluctant to give it up, obviously very attached to the weapon), and resumed pointing it at Sonic.  
"I knew I could count on you, my brother," he said, "I never lost hope that you would get here on time. And oh, look, you've even got yourself a little girlfriend. Cute. A little young for you, though, isn't she? How are you, by the way? You look like crap."  
"You've gone too far, this time," Sonic growled, "You may have killed hundreds. But you don't care, do you?"  
"Sure I care! I think it's great! Sonic, where is the Rune?"  
"Safe. From you."  
"Nothing's safe from me. I'm about to bring this home. This is _my time_, now. I'm a little tired, you see, and I'm not in the mood for any of this nonsense. Where is the freaking _rock_, Sonic?"  
Sonic glanced back at the river, and saw that it had stopped flowing so hard. The water was still moving, but he thought he could ride it into the caves without being hurt, now. The only problem was that he had Roxanna to think about, as well. Cinos was as fast as he was, and he would shoot them both in a heartbeat if Sonic tried to grab her, or tell her to run. He looked back up at Cinos.  
"I haven't come to deliver anything to you. I've come to stop you."  
"Oh phooey, Sonic, how many times do we have to go over this? You can fold, or you can join me. But you can't stop me. It's about time you stopped living in a fantasy world and made your choice."  
"I've made my choice."  
Cinos grimaced and waved the gun in the air, as though Sonic had forgotten about it. "You're about to make a _bad_ choice, Sonic. Make no mistake, I will put a bullet in your head and then I will do the same for your girlfriend, and then I will find your other friends and kill them too. I will find what I want either way, the only difference is that you'll all be _dead!_"  
Before Sonic could respond, something happened that confused him into silence. Something was _hurled_ at Cinos' head, something that burst over his face and created a huge dusty cloud that obscured him completely. Cinos cried out and squeezed off a shot, the bullet hitting the rock wall just above Sonic's head.  
"_Go, Sonic!_" Roxanna cried.  
Sonic figured out what had happened. Roxanna had brought several herbal concoctions with her when she left the island of Septennia, tied up in little bags. Sonic had assumed that they were all healing remedies, but evidently she had had more foresight. One of her bags had turned out to be some kind of weapon, even if Cinos was only stunned.  
"_Go, Sonic, go!_ Do not concern yourself with me!"  
The gun fired again. Pebbles rained down on Sonic's head. The thoughts raced through his mind so quickly that it was almost an instant. Did he have time to save her? If he risked it and failed, Cinos' wrath would end them both. In the brief moment he had, Sonic made a decision. A decision he despised so badly that it tasted bitter in the back of his throat.  
"_I'm sorry, Roxanna!_" he shrieked, almost gagging on the words, "I'm sorry!"  
He dropped backward off of the cliff, plopping into the water. The tide, rather gentle now as the mines filled up, took him away from Cinos and Roxanna, took him into the darkness.

XXV

Roxanna watched Sonic fall into the water and his pleas for forgiveness. She knew how hard it was for him to do it, to sacrifice her for the greater purpose when he knew she may not survive, but it was inevitable. Sonic was fast enough to use a momentary distraction to his advantage, but she was not. Already, Cinos had his bearings again, and his gun was levelled at her.  
She hoped that Sonic had heard her calling after him, telling him that it was all right. Her purpose had been served, and the quest would go on. The universe would hold together for at least a little longer because of what she had done.  
The cloud of white dust hung in the air, slowly dissipating, and Roxanna looked at Rasputan, lurking in the shadows. The spirit-connection had returned to her, and she could see his aura. It was a dancing yellow mist that shimmered around the porcupine's body, and Roxanna was amused to see that it was the exact same colour as his mood ring.  
But then something else stepped out of the fading white cloud, and her amusement faded into horror. For what she saw approaching her now was not like anything she had ever seen, even in her dreams.  
Cinos' aura was also visible, but it was horrid. Not a faint miasma of coloured mist at all, but a swirling, squirming coat of black slugs. Like an oil that moved of its own volition, or some kind of horrid dark slime. It looked almost like the black bags that were used to contain dead people. Bile welled up in Roxanna's throat, and she felt sure that she was going to throw up.  
_This creature does not have a proper soul_, she thought, _And what he has in place of one is a horrific thing indeed_.  
The aura faded, and Cinos came out from under it. She could see his face, now, and the dark hedgehog was not amused. His face was blank, his lips pursed, his eyes unblinking, cold, empty. He held the pistol in one hand, and in the other he now held his dagger. The hand with which he held the knife was trembling softly.  
"Oh man," he whispered, "Are you ever going to regret doing that."

XXVI

"Sonic told me about your brother," Espio said to Niles, and the fox looked up at Espio from the shadows without surprise. The two of them had sought refuge underneath an abandoned building away from the main thoroughfare of the town of Meath. The sun was beginning to go down, and the cloudy sky was painted with an amber glow.  
The Rune of Nine lay inside its protective bag, hidden from sight. Both could feel its nefarious thrall, but it was muffled, as though bound and gagged. Still, it seemed to throb, very faintly. Silence only made it more noticeable, so Espio spoke for the sake of speaking.  
"I get it, you know," he said, "I do understand why you didn't want to come back here. And while I hate that you left, I do appreciate that you came back. More than you know. It's very... big of you."  
Niles looked down again. "He was twenty-seven," he said, "Matthew, I mean. My brother. Two years my senior. When I lost him, there was nobody. Nobody at all. My parents, both deceased. Neither Matthew nor myself were ever entirely popular with the fairer sex, so we had no families. It was simply he and I against an increasingly insane world. I never have been a particularly brave individual, you see, and when he was taken from me, I felt as though I had been thrust into a situation that I could not handle by myself, I was simply not ready to face life alone. I lived in fear every day. So I escaped that horrid place and moved north, and when I settled in Stratosphereon, I thought that I had found somewhere I could settle down." He shook his head. "What I wasn't ready to admit, I'm afraid, was that I _still_ lived in fear. Every day, terrified that I would say or do the wrong thing and wind up a victim of that wretched libria treatment. I had only traded one set of unfortunate circumstances for another, and really it was no better. Joining this little crusade of yours, I figured, was at last a way that I could escape, but alas I was wrong yet again. Every step of the way, we have been attacked by every villain and monster living on Mobius, and again I found myself living in fear."  
"The prospect of returning to Sol-Hayyim was too much for you," Espio said, "I can see your point."  
"I fled," Niles replied, "It was all that I knew how to do, it was the only way I knew I could escape my fears. What I realised, however, lying awake every night, still in fear, was that running away has _never_ solved my problems. Every time I run, you see, I find that one fear has been replaced by another. I have decided thus that the only way I can defeat fear is to face it head-on, vanquish it directly through action. I know that I can do this by returning to my old home, facing the source of that original fear, because, my dear fellow, what has occurred to me is that I no longer need to face it alone."  
"None of us do," Espio said, "The four of us are in this together, to the last. And I'm glad you're willing to do this, because Sonic's been gone more than two days, now. I made a promise before he set off. The time has come for us to go."  
Niles appeared vaguely concerned, and Espio could see that not even these revelations had made him exactly eager to return to the Arack Empire.  
"I must say," he said softly, "I was rather hoping that we could sleep on it."  
"We've delayed enough already," Espio replied, "We can't stay here any longer, waiting for the world to end. The time for action is now."  
Niles sighed. "Very well. Better sooner than later, I suppose. Let us be off, then."

XXVII

Father Matheson kneeled before his modest bed, dressed in only a pair of old tracksuit pants and a robe, his eyes closed and his hands clasped, his forehead resting lightly upon his knuckles. He barely spoke aloud as he prayed, but his low whispers were still audible in the silence to anyone who might chance to listen, although Matheson only intended the audience of one being.  
"Oh God," he prayed, "Oh graceful Lord of Heaven and Mobius, I give thanks for the days behind me, now one more, and for the days ahead of me, now one less, and pray that your love will continue to see me through each of them with safety and good humour, as with all of those blessed with your eternal benevolence. I ask that you bless and protect each and every sacred life upon this planet, and that you continue to deliver the innocent from the grasp-"  
"Of evil?"  
Matheson opened his eyes, not being used to receiving auditory responses from these nightly rituals, and turned his head. A shadow fell across his bedroom; the door was open and a black silhouette filled the portal, somebody looking in at him while he prayed.  
"Excuse me," the priest said, "But I was kind of in the middle of a private conversation."  
"I'm sure it was intellectually stimulating," the figure replied, "But I have a feeling the Big Cheese won't mind too much if I take a few minutes of your time. You were probably boring him to death, anyway, he just wants to get back to his regular job of killing people and sending them to the big fiery pit under the ground."  
The figure stepped into the room and a bar of light fell upon his face. Father Matheson saw two wide, glaring eyes, the irises a brilliant green, but something unfathomably dark behind them.  
"I can relate to that," the figure added.  
"What do you want?" Matheson demanded.  
"Just to pick your brain a little. You should hope for your own sake that that's all I decide to do to it. A small group have passed through here recently. A purple lizard, an uppity annoying fox, a smartmouthed porcupine chick, and a fourth who looks... just like me. You gave them sanctuary, or so I hear, and now they're gone. I was very much looking forward to stabbing them in their sleep, but alas, I find to my extreme irritation that their beds are empty and they've flown the coop. Now you're going to tell me where they've gone, and every time you lie, you're going to bleed a little more."  
Something glinted in the darkness.  
"I guess you think you're intimidating me," Matheson replied, "Look at where you are, look at what I do for a living. You think this is the first time I've been held at knifepoint?"  
"Do you know who I am?" the figure spat, "Do you have any idea?"  
"I know who you are. You wear many diguises, you come in many different forms, but I know who you are. And I know that, unlike Him, your ways aren't quite so mysterious. I'm not afraid of you."  
Something glinted, once again, and the figure began to advance toward Matheson, breathing heavily. He heard a sound and some voices from the homeless shelter's kitchen, and froze, turning his head. He snarled, a gutteral and almost animalistic sound.  
"You have a lot of friends here, _Father_," he said, "Fortunately for you, I don't have time to deal with them right now, and one scream from you and the whole pack of stinking, slobbering animals would be in here quick smart. So you better hope I find who I'm looking for, because if I don't, I'll be back for you tonight. It will hurt plenty." He smiled, and backed out the door. "Sleep tight, Father."

XXVIII

Picture the darkest, most morbid pit of the underworld. Picture it again.

A gigantic wall of rock glows red from the brimstone and searing flames beneath. The heat distorts the air, makes everything waver before your eyes. Embedded in the walls are lines of skulls, forbidding you from proceeding onward if you value your life. Or your sanity.

Two figures again brave this forbidding chamber; one of them dances while the other merely watches. The shadow of the former is huge upon the mighty stone wall behind them, leaping and frolicking into the air as the flames crackle and sear below.

Roxanna-Le Destra sat on the hot stone, too bruised to move, looking up with venomous contempt at the other, who danced and laughed, almost in rhythm with the flames. Rasputan Nethergate, druid of the antiverse, flashed her an insane, mocking grin.  
"The end is here!" Rasputan shrieked, "Everything has happened in _exact accordance_ with the ancient prophecy! Do you still believe your friends are going to stop it?"  
"They will, Bloodmonger," Roxanna spat, "You can do what you like to me, but you will never see the Rune of Nine. Your liege will never stand over the lake of fire and peer into eternity. _Mazsha_ will see to it."  
"_Wrong_, you heretic! You infidel! You stinking fool! You can't see what's right in front of you! The Old Kind have grown weak in this world, weak and soft and tender. You have no _concept_ of the power of the Old Ways! You've lost your abilities through thousands of years of weakness. I have stayed _true_ to the Ways! I have _seen_ the way this plays out! I receive my visions direct from the _Old Gods themselves_! From Mazsha _Herself_!"  
"Are they the Old Gods, or are they merely the voices in your head?"  
Rasputan was taken aback. He gasped and stepped backward so hard that for a moment Roxanna thought he would trip up and fall into the bubbling magma. He regained his compusure, however, and let out a veritable roar of outrage.  
Picking up the gun that he and Cinos had obtained in Stratosphereon, the porcupine druid spun around and pistol-whipped Roxanna across the face. She screamed and fell to the ground, her cheek bleeding, tears streaming from her puffy and bruised left eye.  
"_Never- Never speak to me like that!_" Rasputan shrieked, "_I am not crazy! I am Rasputan Nethergate, the greatest sorcerer on two worlds!_ You will see. Heretic witch, you will see. When Daddy-K gets back here, we're gonna shake up all of reality, and misguided infidels like _you_, who corrupt the Old Ways through inaction and weakness, will occupy the most torturous level of the purgatory that he will create! It's very close, now, so very, very close. Only hours away, now. It's almost over, and there's nothing you can do to stop it. Zilch. Because it's _already been written_.

XXIX

Niles and Espio walked alongside the main street of Meath, the road that left town and headed toward Sol-Hayyim, with care and caution. The sun had vanished for the night, and darkness ruled. Ghosts and demons seemed to dance in every shadow, but Espio knew that they really only danced in his imagination. He wondered if Niles knew the same. Facing the basic fears was the first step toward facing the big ones. Somehow, Espio was sure that the fox was ready. They were Kindred, after all. And the time had come for both of them to shine.  
Despite all of this, Espio almost leaped out of his scales when somebody jumped out at them from the darkness.  
Niles screamed and fell over. The figure was panting hard and moving sluggishly, as though injured. In the dark, it might have been anybody.  
"Who are you?" Espio demanded, "What do you want?"  
"It's me," the figure groaned, and stepped into the light. "Get a hold of yourselves. It's _me!_"  
"_Sonic!_"  
The hedgehog looked tired and haggard. He was covered in bruises and scrapes, like someone who had just played a rough game of football. He also looked exhausted. Espio immediately rushed to his friend's side, deeply troubled both at the state of him and about what might have been responsible for it.  
"It's great to see you guys," Sonic panted, "I was worried. Cinos hasn't got the Rune, has he? Is it safe?"  
"Sonic, it's right here. What happened to you?"  
"Cinos. He-" Sonic winced and brought a hand to his face. "I stuffed up. Cinos blew the lake, he flooded the mines and caught us up in it. He must have killed... I don't even know how many people. I just ran. He's a monster, he's just a monster."  
"What about Roxanna?" Espio asked, "Sonic? What happened to Roxanna?"  
Sonic didn't reply, he just looked up at Espio with a helpless, fallen expression, and Espio knew. The chameleon nodded and turned away.  
"Sonic, dear hedgehog," Niles said, "It's me!"  
Sonic looked up at the fox blankly. "Yeah. It's you. Guys, listen. Cinos is here, he's come looking for the stone. I followed him, but I don't think he knows I'm here. He's trying to track you down, and he'll stop at nothing to get at that rune. We have to get going, get away from here."  
"But where?" Espio asked, "Where do we go?"  
"Back to Sol-Hayyim. We have to protect the rune we have, and the one he still hasn't dug up. And if Roxanna is still alive, we have to get back to her. I don't want to leave her in the hands of that lunatic Rasputan."  
Espio nodded. "Can you get the three of us past the gates?"  
A brief shadow passed over Sonic's face, and he almost turned green. Espio was almost amused by it (or would have been, were the situation not quite so serious), being that he had considered himself the only member of their party who possessed the ability to change colour.  
"I left my papers behind," the hedgehog groaned, "My citizenship papers. They're gone, I can't get back into the city."  
"Never fear!" Niles declared, "You shall be thankful that Niles Wilkinson-Price has returned to you, for I hold the solution to our dilemma. There are two ways to gain access to an Arack city, my dear fellows, and being a citizen is but one. For if you arrive in the _company_ of a citizen, if you enter by _invitation_, you are rewarded some limited degree of access. And do remember, friends, that _I_ am a genuine citizen."  
Niles reached into one of his coat pockets and withdrew a collection of folded and somewhat scrunched and worn sheets of paper. Citizenship documents; bona fide ones, not forgeries.  
"But Niles," Espio said, "Aren't you a fugitive? Won't they just arrest us all on sight?"  
"It is a risk," the fox replied, "But I do believe it is the best plan that we have for the time being, is it not?"  
"If we get into trouble, we'll run for it," Sonic said, "He's right, this is the best plan we have right now. Let's get back before Cinos finds us, he's pretty steamed. We can get two runes to his three, put him in a stalemate."  
Espio nodded. "Right. Then let's do this thing." His voice faltered a little. "And lets get Roxanna back. If he's done anything to her, I'll kill him myself."

XXX

Oh woe, observe forlorn, for terrible times indeed had afflicted the innocent, oppressed and tortured citizens of Sol-Hayyim.

Broderick Gibb looked over the city from the dark corner in which he hid, his teeth set, and what remained of his hands clenched into fists. Behind him, Harvey O'Sale sat with his head in his hands.  
"I don't understand," Broderick growled, "I just don't understand. With all our well laid plans, with all our _planning_, in mere moments we have done worse for these people than the Empire ever has. What have we done, Harvey? What in God's name have we done?"  
The Pit had been almost completely flooded out. It was now a great underground lake in its own right, more than half of the mines now lay beneath the water. And while the Spanner Project had achieved its primary objective - the flooded mines would be of no use to the Aracks, and the entire southwestern branch of the Empire would all but grind to a halt due to the loss of much of its resources for expansion - the completely unprecedented day-early execution of the project had meant that the mines _had been full of people when it happened_. Full of the very people that were supposed to be liberated by this action.  
They had been liberated, all right. Just not in the way that was expected.  
"It wasn't us," Harvey replied, shaking his head softly, "We did everything right. It should have worked... _flawlessly_." The weasel appeared on the verge of tears.  
The tragedy of the Sol-Hayyim mines had happened almost twenty-four hours ago. The sun was coming up again on the city that, once prosperous, already knew it was in dire trouble. Things had begun to fall apart almost instantly, and while terrorism was suspected, the Aracks were more focused at the moment on damage control and analyzing the extent of the tragedy than they were on locating the perpetrators.  
Luckily, the mines had flooded early in the morning, before everybody had even arrived at work, and the alarm had been raised quickly so most had escaped before the primary shafts were compromised. Still, dozens had remained trapped in The Pit when the water reached them. Possibly as many as a hundred. The state of the mines meant that it would take quite a while before the toll could be estimated, and until then it would be a long and difficult time for the families of those who had been lost, or assumed so.  
"No," Broderick Gibb replied, and turned to his friend. "It wasn't us. It was _him_. Ronin Shapesk." He spat the name out as though it tasted revolting. "We invested our trust in him and he gave us nothing but the vilest betrayal."  
"What are we going to do?" Harvey asked, "How are we ever going to live with ourselves?"  
"We will proceed as planned. You and the others will salvage whatever you can from this mess, and prepare for the evacuation of the refugees while the Empire sorts out its own problems."  
"And what will _you_ do?"  
The ten-foot bear crumpled his face into a fearsome scowl, and beat his fists together.  
"I'll stay behind. I'm going to track down Ronin Shapesk. And I'm going to kill him."

XXXI

"This place is familiar," Espio said.  
He stood with Sonic and Niles in the dark back-streets of Sol-Hayyim, and looked over the city in awe. It was quiet in this area of the city, almost silent, for most of its residents had accumulated nearby the mines while the devastation unfolded. Espio was greeted with a relatively unobstructed first view of the bizarre Arack architecture.  
The first thing he noticed, to his horror, was that there was no colour. The streets, the buildings, even the people, all in shades of black and gray.  
"I've been here before," he said, "I _grew up_ here. Only it was underground, and full of chameleons. But it's the same place."  
"Indeed, what a drab and depressing world they make for themselves," Niles replied, "I had always feared the day when I would have to see this... awful décor again. Above all else, I had feared dying here. Anywhere but here, beneath this horrid cityscape."  
Espio shook his head in disbelief. "What is it about mobiankind? We're given this beautiful world filled with colours and wonder, and we feel the need to build these ugly, colourless atrocities on top of it all, just because we decide to believe in invisible gods instead of the world that's _right before our eyes_ and we don't even see it."  
"Actually, chap," Niles interrupted, "The Arack society is Atheistic. If they worship anything at all, it's the Empire itself."  
"You're kidding," Espio replied, "But... it's the same. It's totally the same. It's the Chameleon Cabal all over again, how can they be so different and so similar? How can two _completely opposite_ conclusions give the exact same result?"  
There had been problems entering Sol-Hayyim, problems that had only escalated since infiltrating the city. The authorities at the gate hadn't wanted to let Niles and his guests inside, due to the ongoing crisis at the mines, so Niles had had to get pushy. It would have been a tragedy of irony if Sonic had managed to smuggle contraband into the city using fabricated documents with relative ease, while a genuine citizen like Niles was left unable to enter via legal means.  
The trio had managed at last to talk their way through the immigration center and enter Arack territory, although the fear had always been present that the authorities would recognise Niles as a treasonous fugitive. All the way through the process, Espio expected that the fearsome soldiers in their massive battle suits would grab them and arrest them all, sending them immediately to some horrid fate in an Arack prison, but the secretary spider who handled their case merely informed them that everything was in order and that they could proceed.  
And Espio was consistantly horrified by everything he saw from the moment he stepped onto Empire land. From the battle suits that the soldiers wore, towering over them like golems, to the bizarre and description-defying substance known as mandiblax, like veiny dough, that moved of its own accord like something alive, but clearly was something entirely alien. Espio had been excited to travel all over Mobius and experience all the foreign cultures that he had never been able to perceive in his sheltered underground life, and even the less appealing destinations had roused his interest. This final one, however, only horrified him. From the moment he arrived, he couldn't wait to leave.  
After the three had made it safely inside the city, their fears were indeed realised. They heard shouts from within the immigration center, demands that they return immediately, and the soldiers had begun to advance on them. They never knew whether the reason for this had been that Niles' criminal status had indeed been revealed, or something else. It was possible that they had misread the situation entirely and the complication was something innocent. It didn't matter either way - when they heard the shouts for them to halt, Sonic, Niles and Espio had elected to run instead. They ran until they lost sight of their pursuers, so now they were surely wanted fugitives no matter the situation.  
There was nowhere to go but onward.  
The trio made their way through the city toward the northern edge, the industrial area where the mines and the lake lay against the craggy mountains that shielded this side of Sol-Hayyim. From an area of high ground, they rested for a moment, watching the unravelling events.  
The lake was little more than a muddy crater, now, drained of its water. The aqueducts had been sealed off, their flow more of a hindrance to the already dire situation, and the Aracks were fiercely attending to the flooded mines, already making an attempt to pump out the water. It would take an extremely long time, especially by Arack standards, to bring this problem under control. During that time, Sol-Hayyim would have no drinking water and no resources, both of which would be required in vast amounts to actually complete the monumental task of removing thousands of liters of water from the mines and re-filling the lake.  
As Niles would say, the city of Sol-Hayyim was right buggered.  
Sonic pointed toward the lake. "That's where we're going," he said.  
Espio squinted. The dry lake? Why would they go there? Then he noticed a strange detail - in the wall of the crater, there was a crevasse, like a cave, a fissure that would have been deep underwater, were the lake actually full. It opened up a hole under the mountains.  
"When Cinos flooded the mines," Sonic explained, "He emptied the lake. In doing so, he brought that cave to surface. It leads right to the resting place of the fifth Rune. He went to a huge amount of trouble to gain access to it, and now it's wide open, he can march in whenever he likes and just take it. We have to get there first."  
And so they started forward again, heading toward the lake bed with absolutely no plan as to how they were going to make it through. After all, the entire sector was crawling with Aracks. Soldiers cordoned off the scene of the disaster, probably fearing more attacks. They would likely proceed with deadly force against anybody trying to break through, especially three tagged foreign suspects who were already on the run, one of them a known traitor. Logic played no part in the execution of this siege. The only thing left was the faith that they had to succeed - they hadn't made it this far just to get arrested or shot dead within sight of the final destination. It would be an unthinkable irony.  
Sonic walked in the lead as they began to make their way through the waterworks, passing huge pipes that now lay silent and empty, and toward the guarded zone. Frequently he looked back to make sure that his companions were still following.  
Niles kept close to Espio, and spoke to the chameleon in a low voice.  
"Our dear friend Sonic appears to be quite furious at me," he said. "I rather hoped that he would be happy to see me, but he has yet to speak a word about my absence and subsequent return. One would think that I hadn't even come back at all."  
Espio frowned and nodded. "He hasn't spoken much to either of us. I'm concerned about him, I think that it's all becoming too much for him. Cinos has obviously pulled off a pretty significant disaster this time, _and_ lost Roxanna to boot. I'm worried about her, too, worried sick, but we can't let it _ruin_ us. We have to keep going."  
The entrance to The Pit was in sight, now, and Espio and Niles caught a glance as they passed it, keeping carefully out of view. The Aracks had already set up their huge machines, drilling and demolishing and building. The purpose of some of the technology was clear and obvious, others a complete mystery. Espio noted the tallest of the machines, like an enormous crane shooting far into the sky. At its base was a massive mandiblax bubble, like an inverted hot-air-balloon, that puffed out and deflated repeatedly in a constant pattern. What that thing did was a mystery that only the spiders themselves would be able to answer, and Espio wasn't going to ask them.  
"Look," Niles said, pointing ahead, "Dear hedgehog, stop! If you proceed much further, I fear we shall all be seen and arrested immediately! We _must_ stop and think carefully about how to proceed!"  
"Just a little further," Sonic replied, "Then we'll stop."  
So they followed the hedgehog further, although they were approaching distressingly close to where the Arack authorities were collected together. Espio could see the entrance to the lake - a gate in the fence that cordoned off its circumference. It was well-guarded, but there were clusters of pipes running through, which did provide a degree of cover. There was no way they could sneak through as it was, with six armoured Arack soldiers standing at the gate, but if the guards were adequately distracted...  
"_Hold it right there!_ This is as far as you go, and you go no further!"  
At first, Espio thought that they had been spotted by a guard, and the game was up. There was no way they would outrun all of this heat. His heart skipped a beat, and he didn't know whether he would scream or cry. He did neither. For when he looked around in the direction from where the command had originated, he saw no soldiers or spiders. He only saw two porcupines, and one was holding a gun.  
"_Rasputan!_"  
The twisted druid of the antiverse held Roxanna in an awkward grip, one hand clutched at her mouth. It wasn't so much a grip designed to keep her from running as it was to keep her from screaming, as one look at her bruises and her hopeless expression made it painfully clear that she was too weak to put up any kind of resistance. Her captor pointed his pistol at his enemies, grinning in the way he always did.  
"Roxanna!" Espio exclaimed, "Are you okay? Has he hurt you?" It was a stupid question, as it was so obvious that he had. She tried to muffle a reply, but it was incomprehensible.  
"Oh, she's just fine, my little technicolour buddy," Rasputan said, "A little worse for wear, a little under the weather, but still breathing, sure. Not for long, though, not if you take another step."  
Espio looked to Sonic for guidance, who merely stared at their ambusher, a strange and unreadable expression on his face, a bizarre glint in his eyes. Slowly, he began to approach Rasputan.  
"Don't, Sonic," the chameleon warned, "I don't think he's bluffing."  
But Sonic continued. He walked right up to Rasputan and stared him in the eye. Rasputan made a move that Espio mistook for him aiming the gun at Sonic, and he gasped and took a few helpless steps closer, unwilling to approach further. But Rasputan was not adjusting his aim. In a move that boggled Espio and Niles completely, the porcupine stepped forward and _handed his gun to Sonic_.  
Espio was losing his grip on lucidity.  
"Sonic?"  
The hedgehog turned around slowly. His face was sullen, shrinking into a scowl. Then, with a move that terrified Espio to the core, he lifted the pistol himself and pointed it directly at the chameleon's head.  
"No, my lad," Niles said morbidly, "Not Sonic."

XXXII

"I'd like to thank the academy," said the glowering hedgehog Cinos. Beside him, Rasputan laughed as though he had just heard the world's funniest joke. Although Espio recognised this as a joke, he did not consider it funny.  
"I hope you liked my impression. I also do celebrities."  
Espio wanted to crawl into a hole and die. _I can't believe this happened, I can't believe you didn't catch on. You've spent every day with Sonic for the best part of a year and you couldn't even tell that it wasn't him? You idiot. You fool._ He squeezed his eyes shut and slinked back. Niles put a comforting arm around his shoulders.  
"And so," Cinos said, "we're finally here. The moment of truth, the final stand. All of Sonic's idiot friends together in the same great big trap. Now, I don't know any of you from a bar of soap, so I can't say why you've all opted to join his naive crusade against me. The image of a hoard of lemmings dropping off a cliff comes to mind. Doesn't matter, we're all here now, one big party, and I do believe you've brought me a present."  
Espio curled his fingers around the strap of the bag that held the Rune of Nine. The invaluable stone that they had carried right into the enemy's trap.  
"You think you're getting your hands on this?" he asked, "Never."  
Cinos sighed. "I really was hoping that we could do this without anybody dying."  
"I find that hard to believe."  
"Yeah. You're right. See, the real problem is that there are a huge bunch of butt-ugly spiders just ahead who are just one scream or gunshot away from coming over here and indiscriminately plugging us all. That would be a hassle for all of us, so let's try doing this quietly, shall we?"  
"Not going to be that easy, Cinos."  
"Oh, okay, well I guess that means I'll just violently murder your little girly-friend while you all watch. This is the _fun_ option."  
He aimed the pistol at Roxanna.  
"_Wait!_" Espio cried.  
"Wait, you say? Sure, if that means we have a deal."  
"You think we're going to _deal_ with you?"  
"Absolutely. The girl for the rock. Unless you think she's not worth as much as a rock."  
"_Let her go, you sick freak!_"  
"That wasn't the answer I was looking for."  
Espio's entire body seemed to shift toward a redder hue as he exchanged glances between Cinos, Rasputan and the captured Roxanna. The latter appeared strangely calm despite the situation, which wasn't entirely out of character for her. Even so, she had clearly been tortured and roughed up, which filled Espio with a greater hatred than he had ever felt for anybody, even taking into account his days living within the Pit of the Chameleon Cabal, watching his kin murder in the name of their religion. _She's just an innocent girl. A quiet, warm, innocent girl. How could anybody be so twisted? And how could anybody mistake such a twisted monster for a close friend?_  
For once, he was completely clueless. Espio had no idea what to do. He looked to Niles for the answer, pleading with his eyes for the fox to get them out of this situation and make it so that it never happened. But Niles just looked back with the same helpless, hopeless expression written on his face. They could try to escape, and they might get away, but Cinos would murder Roxanna out of spite, just as certain as night followed day. Then again, they might not get away at all, and all three of them would die by Cinos' hand, and the dark hedgehog would _still_ get the rune. He was, after all, faster than they were.  
Despairingly, Espio knew that there was only one choice that would see them through this alive. It was a bad choice, but the best one they had.  
"Take it, then," he spat, "Take the stupid thing, just let her go."  
"No," Roxanna murmured. Rasputan jabbed her hard.  
"You've made a wise decision," Cinos said, "Just drop it, and we can all be on our way."  
Niles took the rune bag from Espio. "I think it is quite clear that you, sir, cannot be trusted," he said, "Therefore, I propose that we make a sporting trade. I shall walk across to you with the stone, and your lunatic associate shall walk across to here, escorting our friend."  
"Whatever, whatever, hurry it up."  
Niles began to walk toward Cinos with the Rune of Nine wrapped safely in its protective bag. Rasputan began to walk in the opposite direction with Roxanna, both parties wary of the other's deception. They met in the middle, staring into each other's eyes.  
Just then, Cinos made an exaggerated yawning sound. "No," he said "I've changed my mind."  
He raised his gun and shot Niles down.  
"_No!_" Espio screamed, and ran to his fallen friend. Rasputan whooped and cackled, snatching up the rune bag, and dragged both the bag and Roxanna back to where Cinos stood.  
Niles wailed in pain and sat up. "_Bloody cripes! He shot me in the bloody leg!_" Blood had begun to flow from the bullet wound in his shin, running down his leg and onto the concrete.  
"I still need some _insurance!_" Cinos exclaimed, "I need to know that you won't follow me! I'm making the rules here, you little twirps, and the rule is that if I so much as _suspect_ you're coming after me, I shoot your friend in the face. How's that for a deal?"  
He opened the bag and lifted the rune out of it. The small and wretched chunk of stone that Sonic and his companions had fought so hard to procure in the town of Desolation, had worked so hard to protect from the very person who now held it in his hands. _What have I done?_ Espio's mind screamed, _I've doomed us all_.  
Cinos gaped when he set his eyes on the symbol on the stone. Those two straight lines and one crooked, such an impossibly simple design and yet so mindblowingly significant. The hedgehog's eyes opened so wide that they looked as though they might fall from their sockets. His lips trembled, and he seemed to lose himself inside the stone.  
"_Yes!_ he shrieked, "Oh, _yes!_"  
Espio immediately knew that the Rune of Dark Thoughts had found the one soul in existence capable of loving it.  
"Kinnos," Rasputan urged, "We must go!"  
"So we must," Cinos replied, but he couldn't tear his eyes away from the stone. It filled him with such beautiful misery, such marvellous _anger!_  
The two enemies and their captive made haste and left Espio beside his fallen friend, who tendered his bleeding leg with tears in his eyes. Espio's eyes were teary, too.  
"What have we done, Niles?" he asked, "Good Lord. What have we done?"

XXXIII

Sonic, in his pain, asked the same question of himself.

The hedgehog had awoken inside the mines, his head killing him almost as much as his arm, and tried to remember what had happened.  
Cinos. Roxanna. The lake. The explosion. The sacrifice.  
The water had brought him to The Pit, which was now just a giant underground lake, but it had roughed him up quite a bit first. Rushing through the caves, he had been thrown against rocks and battered by debris. He remembered something colliding with his arm so hard that he was sure it had been broken. Then there was a pain in his head and everything had fallen dark until now, when he had awoken face-down in a mine shaft with the lower half of his body floating in water. There was blood under his face; he could smell it and taste it. He had been knocked unconscious.  
Nothing new.  
His arm screamed in agony when he tried to move, the epicenter of the pain in his shoulder, and he realised it had been dislocated. Whether it was broken as well, he had yet to discern. He popped the limb back in its socket, and screamed. His voice echoed throughout the mines, answered only by the lapping waves of the water, like an underground shoreline.  
Sonic knew that he hadn't made a small mistake, this time, hadn't allowed a minor setback to hinder their progress. He had screwed _all the way_ up. When Cinos had blown that lake, he might conceivably have murdered hundreds of innocent people, and Sonic hadn't done a thing to stop it. Things didn't look good regarding Roxanna's survival, either, after he had left her alone in the hands of his murderous dark twin and fled.  
And _fled_.  
"Since when do you run away, Sonic?" he asked himself. "Since when do you leave a defenseless, innocent girl in the company of a homicidal maniac while you flee the scene? What is that all about?"  
But the cave did not reply, did not offer any insight into his predicament. He never thought that he would ever do such a cowardly thing. When it came to protecting the innocent, he strived for selflessness. In any other situation, he would at the very least have pushed _Roxanna_ into the water away from harm, and faced Cinos himself.  
So what was different about this situation?  
"Because you're not ready to face him yet."  
This time, the cave _did_ seem to answer his question. Aloud. It startled him. Had he really just heard a voice? Was somebody in here with him? He turned around and saw nobody. Of course not. He had been shaken up, knocked on the head pretty hard. He wasn't thinking straight.  
He knew he wasn't ready to face Cinos yet. Deep in his heart and soul, he knew it. But when would he be? The question was frightening, because Cinos had already offered an answer.  
_Fall for me, Sonic._  
He would be ready when he finally resorted to evil. When he admitted that his dark twin's philosophy was right and that only underhanded acts could defeat underhanded acts. Only when he abandoned his moral baggage and was prepared to fight dirty would he be a match for the mighty Kinnos Sharpe.  
Had he already begun to turn? Was abandoning Roxanna the first step? Subconsciously, had he suspected Cinos would flood the mines when he did, and allowed it to happen in order to gain an upper hand? Had Cinos finally eroded him to the extent that he would commit heinous crimes in the name of desperation, so that he might finally achieve the advantage? _And was that really the only way to do so?_  
"It isn't true, Sonic."  
This time, he _knew_ he had heard a voice. He turned to face whoever it was who had spoken, suspecting Cinos was trying to play another one of his tricks. This time, the intruder had made himself visible, but it wasn't who Sonic expected.  
It wasn't somebody Sonic would have expected in a million years.  
"Kethriel..."  
"Hello, old friend."  
Sonic choked up, speechless, at the sight of Kethriel Rosethorne, his old mentor, standing before him. The older hedgehog, Amy's elder brother and the person Sally would have married, smiled with the warm and friendly visage he had always carried. He was like everyone's favourite uncle, the most popular member of the Freedom Fighters, and one of its founding members.  
There was only one problem with his being here like this, but it was a pretty significant one.  
"Oh man, I really did hit my head hard," Sonic muttered, "I wish you really were here, though. I've never needed your advice more urgently."  
"What makes you think I'm not?" Kethriel asked.  
"Uh, you're a little bit dead, Keth."  
The older hedgehog's smile seemed to drop away, replaced by a look of shock.  
"Holy crap! Am I?"  
"Yeah. Remember? The Death Egg?"  
"Oh, yeah. Right. Well, I guess that does explain a few things. Like, how I don't seem to need to breathe or eat anymore. And I _have_ been walking through an awful lot of walls, lately. There's this guy with a black coat and a big scythe who's been chasing me around the place."  
Sonic laughed and sat down. "You sure sound like Keth."  
"Well, I should. 'Cause it's me. It's good to see you, kiddo. I never thought I'd be able to actually speak to you again, but... at times like these, we're allowed a little bit of leeway with the rules."  
"So, am I dreaming or what?"  
Kethriel seemed to consider the question. "Well, there's no easy answer. You are, but you're not. The difference between maginary and imaginary visions isn't something I have time to explain, as my visit is limited, and Cinos is already on his way to his final destination as we speak. Let's just say that you're not dreaming."  
"But I know you're not real outside my head. You're dead. And besides, your voice doesn't echo in the caves like mine does."  
"You're right, but like I said, it's complicated. But in any event, I'm here. You should know that I've been watching you for some time. I've seen you grow into quite a hero, kiddo. I'm very, very proud of you. Your adventures will make great stories someday."  
"Thanks, but I'm not really thinking that highly of myself right now. I'm really questioning the whole hero thing."  
Kethriel smiled. "You know, I remember your _first_ adventure. As I recall, I sent you all over the world in search of some very valuable stones. Sounds a little familiar."  
"Oh, you mean the time that Robotnik destroyed our home and killed thousands of people while I watched, all chained up in the cockpit of his doomsday machine?"  
"That's one way to look at it. Another way is that your actions _saved_ thousands more from the same fate. Not to mention that you almost single-handedly stopped the Doctor from going on to robotize the whole world."  
Sonic shook his head. "Small potatoes, considering the looming reality - if somebody had just killed Robotnik when they _first realised_ what he was planning, his crimes would have been prevented. _Millions_ would have better lives today."  
"But that would have been an underhanded thing to do. Evil in itself."  
"Exactly. Hence my... My _crisis of conscience_, as Orlando Winterburn called it."  
Kethriel sighed. "Sonic, if it will put your mind at ease, you should know that the destruction of Mobitropolis was inevitable. No matter how many people died in the process, and no matter how many other cities had to fall as well, Mobitropolis' time had come. However, because of you, it was no more of a tragedy than it had to be."  
Sonic snorted. "How do you know that?" He flicked the water at his feet with two fingers, playing with the ripples.  
"That's something else I don't have time to explain," Kethriel replied, "I'll try to make it brief and simple. The future isn't something that's predetermined. Mobians have free will, and that free will, the _choices_ that people make, shape the world that you live in. That's the way it works, on this level of the Tower. But there _are_ certain things that _are_ written. Things that will happen no matter what anyone chooses. Big things, little things. Imagine an incoming tide on a beach, and that tide is time. The beach is vast and flat, and there's nothing to shape the way the water flows. But every so often, it collides with a jetty-post. Something that's already been placed there for the water to run into."  
"And the fall of Mobitropolis was one of these things."  
"Correctimundo."  
"And Cinos? His victory?"  
"Unwritten. It could go either way, conceivably. But your _quest_, your crossing paths with the three companions you've been travelling with, _that_ has been something fated, something that had to happen. And haven't you felt it, kiddo? Haven't you felt that guiding hand, all the way? That indescribable something that you just feel, deep in your gut?"  
"And you can see this?" Sonic asked, "Can you ghosts all see the future?"  
"We're granted a little extra... perspective, from our vantage point. Just like when you're standing on higher ground than somebody else, you can see a little further than they can."  
"You can see the jetty-posts."  
"Some of the closer ones, sure. I know certain things that are going to happen soon, it makes things a little more interesting from where I am. They don't let me see the big picture, though, any more than you can. And I can never see past free will, none of us can. The choices that you make are your own, there's nobody pulling your strings. You can be shown choices-"  
"But it's up to me to make them."  
"Bingo."  
"So if I chose to commit evil in order to prevent evil?"  
"Well, kiddo, you've really gotta wonder whether that even makes sense."  
"Nothing makes sense, Keth. It doesn't make sense for evil - unrestrained, unencumbered evil - to be defeated by burdened morality. It doesn't make sense for love to overcome hatred, or for the power to create to be stronger than the power to destroy."  
"No. No, I guess it doesn't make any sense."  
Sonic flicked at the water again, feeling lost.  
"And yet," Kethriel continued, "It happens. All the time."  
The younger hedgehog looked up, gazing into his mentor's kind eyes, wordless. Something began to click over in his mind. At long last, some form of catharsis, a developing realisation. Kethriel smiled and nodded, as though he detected this. "And now," he said, "You must go. You have a clone to catch up to. He's almost at the end of his journey, and so are you. Your friends are right outside this pit, waiting for you to join them. You all have some important choices to make. As for me, alas, I'm due elsewhere as well."  
"Why?"  
"Oh, you know. Ghost stuff. I'm late already, I'm supposed to be haunting an abandoned church in an old graveyard at three."  
Sonic smiled and wiped away a tear.  
"Hey, Keth?"  
"Yeah, kiddo?"  
"Can you tell me about the future? Any jetty-posts I should know about?"  
"Well, I'm not really supposed to discuss it. I'd tell you to watch out for the Abbalah-Dinn, but that's really more Knuckles' concern than yours. The thing is, knowing which results are inevitable kinda messes up the whole purpose of life, which is to find out for yourself. Go forth and discover, and live. Now go on and do what you're supposed to do, kid, stop procrastinating."  
Sonic looked up at the caves, to where the light filtered in from the outside through various holes cut into the surface. He could hear the Aracks outside, already working.  
"It's good to see you, Keth. Really good."  
"Likewise, Sonic, likewise."  
"Amy and Sally still miss you heaps. Do you want me to tell them anything for you? Do you want me to tell them you love them and watch over them?"  
"They already know I do."  
Sonic turned around again, but Kethriel was gone. Not only had he vanished from the caves, but the whole concept that there was somebody else in here had withdrawn so thoroughly that it seemed ridiculous. The caves were silent but for the splashing and trickling of the water and the tinkering of the Aracks outside echoing throughout the mines. There was nobody here, nobody at all, and no evidence whatsoever to suggest there ever had been.  
No evidence that Sonic hadn't been talking to himself.  
And yet, he felt enlightened. His mind was aflame with new light, and for the first time he knew what it was that he had to do.  
It was time to do it.

XXXIV

After Cinos had fled with the Rune of Nine, Espio and Niles retreated from the scene, fearful that the Aracks might investigate the sound of gunshots. They rested in a jungle of water pipes, Niles tendering his injured leg.  
"In all my years, I never imagined!" Niles exclaimed, "_Shot!_ Like some bloody gangster! How did that happen? I'm a _librarian!_"  
"Try not to move too much," Espio replied, "What we need is some way to stop the bleeding. I wish there was something I could use to get that bullet out."  
"Oh dear. I would rather prefer that task to be performed by a person with a medical degree. No offense intended, you understand."  
"I don't think that's a liberty we can afford right now. Look, tear a strip of material off your jacket."  
"Tear _strips_ off my _jacket_?"  
"Yeah man, we'll make a torniquet. Geez, I'm no good at this medical stuff, I wish Roxanna-"  
He couldn't finish the sentence, as his voice broke and he had to put his face in his hands to compose himself.  
"It isn't your fault, you know, lad," Niles said, gripping his jacket but hesitating to damage it. Finally, he sighed and began tearing off a strip.  
"But I should have noticed instantly! Do you realise that he didn't call either of us by our names? Not once! He doesn't even _know_ our names. He managed to trick me into thinking he was my best friend, even though he knew nothing about me. How does that happen?"  
"You've always been the one who goes on about group responsibility. I must say, I'm every bit as guilty as you are. He said not a word about my having returned, presumably because he was never aware that I had left in the first place."  
"I know," the chameleon replied, "And I know that we did say we would fight this to the end, even if it meant sacrificing each other and ourselves. It just cuts right to the bone when someone you care about is being used against you. I know now how Sonic must feel."  
"Did I hear somebody say my name?"  
Niles and Espio looked up to see a blue hedgehog standing over them. There were all together too many blue hedgehogs hanging around lately. Espio was on guard immediately.  
"What do _you_ want, Cinos?" he spat, "Haven't you done enough damage? _Leave us alone!_"  
"Whoa, whoa!" The hedgehog stumbled back, as though fearing that Espio might take a swing at him. By the look on the chameleon's face, it might not have been far from the mark. "It's me, it's Sonic!"  
"Oh yeah? You're gonna have to prove it this time."  
"We're sticking together to the end, right? We're Kindred, isn't that what Alastrine said? Look into my eyes, search your feelings. C'mon buddy, it's me."  
Espio's anger melted away from his face. His eyes welled up with tears instead.  
"Sonic-" he stammered, "Sonic, I lost her. I screwed up, I lost the rune and I lost her."  
"It's okay," Sonic said calmly, "He's still missing a stone. He'll find it soon, but until then we still have time to stop him. And we will." Sonic shifted his gaze to Niles, who was tying a strip from his jacket over a wound on his leg.  
"Niles... it's great to see you back, man."  
"Likewise, dear hedgehog. Though I fear I'll be little use to anybody in the state I'm in. I've taken an injury, I'm afraid."  
"It's not that bad," Espio added, "Cinos shot him in one of his more generous moments."  
"A mere fleshwound," Niles said.  
The hedgehog and the chameleon stood either side of Niles, each taking an arm around their shoulders and helping the wounded fox to his feet. Niles winced with the pain, but took it bravely.  
"Sonic," Espio said, "I'm worried sick for Roxanna. I know there probably wasn't anything more I could do, but I still feel like I lost her. I'm not used to... well, I'm just not used to _caring_ about anyone this much. I know what you mean, now, about it making you weak. Cinos doesn't love anybody, he can do whatever he wants and he has nothing to lose. He can use Roxanna against us."  
"Espio," Sonic replied, "I know how it feels, I know better than anyone. But I've been wrong. It's only just dawned on me. The four of us - you, me, Niles and Roxanna - we haven't been put together as friends as a means of hindering us from our quest. Our bond was made to _strengthen_ us, make us _more likely_ to defeat Cinos, _especially_ if he decides to use us against each other."  
"What do you mean?"  
"Zero Tolerance always told me that it was my commitment to my friends that made me weak, and Cinos always told me that the person with nothing to lose is always the person who will come out on top in a fight. They both think that way _because_ they love nobody and nothing. What they don't realise is that he who loves nothing _has nothing to fight for_. Cinos is right in one way - we're the same, he and I, except for that one thing. But he thinks that one thing is going to be my undoing. I think the same thing is going to be his."  
"You have a way of circling around the point, dear hedgehog," Niles said.  
"The point," Sonic said, "Is that his mindset means that he can fight harder, but mine means that I can fight for longer. He might not realise it, but in the end, I _want_ to win more than he does."  
"So how do we use this?" Espio asked.  
"The old fashioned way," Sonic replied, "We fight. We fight for Roxanna, and for the Runes, and for the survival of the world. We fight until there isn't a single breath left in our bodies. Are you with me?"  
"Oh bother, I left my boxing gloves in my other jacket," Niles said, "The one that hasn't been torn to pieces."  
"I'll take that as a yes. Espio?"  
"I'm with you, Sonic. All the way. To the very end."  
"Good. Then lets get that hedgehog."

XXXV

Sonic, Espio and Niles hid from sight in the shadows of the concrete pipes, peering through the tall chain-link fence that separated them from the dry lake that Cinos had emptied. There was still a knee-deep puddle of water in its bed, with clumps of seaweed visible poking out of the slimy surface. The crevasse that had once been under the water was visible and unguarded, although the entire lake was blocked at its entrance by six Arack sentries, each fully armoured in CEC battle suits. This was the first time that Sonic had seen this; the second for his companions.  
"That's what he was after," Sonic said, keeping his voice low. He knew from experience that the CEC suits were equipped with sensory enhancement equipment. "He drained the lake so that he could get at these underground caverns. That's where the Rune must be."  
"Tough luck getting in there," Niles said, "Our eight-limbed friends have cordoned the area off quite effectively, it seems."  
The fence was high - too high to climb, and laced with something like razor-wire anyway. From what they could see, there was only the one entrance, guarded by the six Aracks. Several large pipes were laid down, conduits between the lake and the many treatment facilities, and Sonic thought that it might be possible to use them for cover, to sneak through the gate. However, it could not be done unless the guards' attention was already focused on something else, distracted for just a few moments.  
But what at their disposal could create that much of a distraction?  
"How did Cinos get in?" Espio asked, "He didn't go this way when he took the Rune."  
"I'm guessing he would have gone in through the mines," Sonic replied, "He blew a few holes between The Pit and the lake. Even if those are guarded or inaccessable, he still has quite a few explosives left. He used four or five when he blew the lake, but I smuggled in at least a dozen."  
"You... smuggled in? What do you mean?"  
Sonic realised his friends were still ignorant of the sad, ironic story of how he came to be the courier of his enemy's own weapons, and shook his head. "It's a long story, and you'll hear it later. Not now. The point is that there's obviously more than one way into that cave, and they're all probably safer than this one. We just need to find another way."  
"Dear hedgehog, we're running out of time," Niles said, "Our adversaries are already en route, and they know precisely where they're going. It's going to take the three of us positively _forever_ to locate an alternative entrance... especially if you two plan on escorting me, hobbled as I am, all the way."  
"I don't know what else to suggest. This way is far too well-guarded, we don't have any way of getting past the Aracks."  
"There is a way, dear hedgehog."  
"Well, what is it?"  
Niles smiled, and waggled his eyebrows in a knowing little gesture. Then he raised his nose high into the air and straightened his posture, and Sonic was reminded of the stuffed-shirt egotist he had first encountered in the library of Stratosphereon, before he had been cut down a few notches by his travels and his company.  
"My friends," he said, "The time comes in every fellow's life when he must stand up and make something of himself, make a stand for what is right. That time has come for me."  
"What do you mean?"  
"What we need, dear hedgehog, is a diversion." He smiled. "I would like to offer my services as that diversion."  
"Hey, Niles, no. It isn't necessary-"  
"I'm afraid it is necessary, my dear fellow, for you see, it is clearly evident to me that my role in this quest of ours has come to an end. There is nothing that I can do to assist anybody in those caves down there, and my injury assures that I would only slow things down considerably. As it turns out, the only real _skill_ that I possess to further our cause is the fact that I am a wanted criminal in this city, a so-called traitor, and out of the three of us, I am the only one who might be able to distract those guards sufficiently enough that the two of you might gain passage."  
"I think he's right, Sonic," Espio said, "We've only got one shot. One of us is going to have to be left behind, here."  
Sonic shook his head. "We've all come so far. I wanted the three of us to be together, to get Cinos together. There's no telling what those spiders are going to do to you when they catch you."  
Niles put a hand on Sonic's shoulder. "Sonic, several years ago, I was faced with a problem and made a decision to flee from it. Since that day, I have lived in many places and seen many things, but nothing has granted me relief for the baggage I have carried with me all this way. I have always been a coward and I have always run from my strife. I now choose to stop running. The time has come for me to reap the consequences of my actions all those years ago. I am going to face this in the way that my brother would have. I am going to make him proud of me, even though he will not be here to witness it. And _you_ fellows are wasting a lot of time talking about it."  
Sonic nodded. "Then I thank you. And I promise that we'll make the most of this. We'll get Cinos and pummel him into next century. We'll get in a few extra for your leg."  
Niles and Sonic hugged, but Niles made it a very cultured and dignified action, punctuating it with a brisk handshake. He then repeated it with Espio. As Sonic struggled to keep the tears out of his eyes (somehow, he felt it would be embarrassing to cry in front of Niles, who for the first time had become somebody he genuinely looked up to), and saw that Espio's scales had turned orange, the same colour as Niles' fur, during their embrace.  
"_Adieu_," Niles said, "My dear friends, it has been an honour to know you both, and I truly do hope that you find success in all of your ventures."  
"Hey, whoa," Espio protested, "No goodbyes, okay? We're seeing each other again."  
"Perhaps, perhaps. I do hope so."  
Niles gave a salute, and came out of hiding. He winced in pain at having to walk on his wounded leg unassisted, and moved with a heavy limp. Sonic watched with a heavy heart as he approached the battle-ready Arack soldiers, but steeled himself as much as he was able, knowing that they had a small window of opportunity in which to act. Niles had most assuredly been right - Sonic had his speed, and Espio had the ability to hide himself among his surroundings, but there was no way that they would have been able to smuggle Niles past those guards, even with a distraction. One way or another, Niles Wilkinson-Price would have ended his journey here, and it was fitting that his final action for the cause should be to finally confront his demons and stand up to his fears. It was right.  
"_Hey!_" the fox shouted at the guards, limping toward them, "_You ugly sods! I'll have you know that I've been working out, and have developed some rather smashing pecs! I shall take on the lot of you, if you are brave enough to confront me! I say, I really am quite out of control at the moment, and I do believe it is indeed time to rumble. Can either of you fellows smell what the fox is cooking?_"  
Sonic and Espio made their move when it was clear that all six of the guards were focused away from them and moving toward Niles, who was now declaring that he _felt the need, the need for expeditious velocity_ and was leading them astray. Although not all of the guards were willing to leave their post, all six were giving Niles their attention, and it was just the lapse in focus that the hedgehog and chameleon needed to slip past them and into the enclosed area of the lake, where they kept to the slimy bank, just shy of the Aracks' line of sight, and headed promptly toward the exposed crevasse.  
When Sonic heard the first gunshots, each sound seemed to pierce his chest and stab into his heart, icicles of anguish, and he sincerely wondered whether they would really ever see Niles again. He promised himself that, should the fox's uncanny act of bravery be his last, the ultimate sacrifice, he would make sure that it counted.  
They stepped into the humid cave together and began to descend. They did not see the huge, broad-shouldered figure who followed them inside, breathing gruffly, hands squeezed into fists like boulders.

XXXVI/Cinos

The dark hedgehog was indeed already deep in the molten heart of Mobius, and he knew that he would soon find what he had come here for. He walked the final stretch of what had been a long, trying and arduous journey through a world that offended him to his very core. It would be worth it, for the power he was about to obtain.  
Although it had never been about the power, not really. Power bored Cinos. What he anticipated, what thrilled him the most, was to see the expression on the face of everyone who had ever crossed him, the moment they realised that he _had_ the power. The moment they realised that he was about to be the architect of their messy, torturous demise. If he was about to be a god, Cinos decided he would make the most of it. There would be no salvation in the Age of Kinnos. Nobody would ever have anything to look forward to at the end of their lives besides a fiery pit, although he would make sure that his Hades was only slightly worse than the nightmare he was going to make out of Mobius.  
Slung over his back was a bag containing four of the five Runes of Awakening. Already they roared with power, filling him with visions of what he was to look forward to when he located the fifth stone and unlocked their dormant energies.  
He could feel each of them as independently they screamed their piercing energies at his offensive, backward soul, and the combined force of them threatened to drive him insane. He could hear the chattering, anguished voices of a thousand porcupine spirits like darts in his brain. Nothagodos, Fleg and Shalpad, each carrying with them a unique kind of torture. But it was his latest acquisition, the Rune of Nine, that made it all bearable. The delightfully miserable and wretched energies of this stone shared almost a kind of common wavelength with his own rotten spirit. It was like a drug, infecting him with sublime placidity. He fought the urge to stop moving, sit down and simply hold it to his chest, stroking it and rocking it like an infant. The only thing stopping him from doing so was the knowledge that he was about to unleash an unfathomable amount of misery upon the world, the extent of which even he failed to imagine, and he would suck it all in until his deistic form simply exploded for the weight of it.  
He dragged Roxanna with him. She went semi-willingly, held at the neck by an iron crowbar that Cinos used in a choke-hold. The porcupine was an insufferable burden to him, and he was conscious that she was deliberately slowing him down with her futile resistance. Sonic was coming. They both knew it. Cinos kept her alive because of the emotional ammunition she represented, but his patience was quickly wearing thin, and he knew his anger would soon overcome his resignation. If not for the Rune of Nine, she would probably already have been dead.  
_I'll kill her when I find the final stone,_ he promised himself, _I'll beat her until there's nothing left, the little witch._  
The porcupine was chanting something to herself insufferably, and though Cinos couldn't quite make it out, he thought it sounded like she was repeating the word _blizzard_, although that made absolutely no sense.  
"_Shut up!_" he roared, "Or else I'll throw you down there!" He shoved her so that she hung precariously off the side of the brief ledge along which they were walking. The bubbling, hissing lake of magma below sent its heat and fumes up to taunt them, and Roxanna sobbed and writhed as Cinos held her over the open flames. Then he pulled her back onto the ledge and forced her to continue moving ahead.  
It wasn't long before they reached their goal. Cinos trembled and gaped in wonder as he set his sights upon a stone wall into which was set the ancient symbol of the Awakening. The huge glyph loomed down on him as the final confirmation of his assured victory. He raised his arms and bathed in the glory of it.  
For a few moments he seemed lost in a world of his own, and didn't realise that Roxanna had broken free of his grasp and was crawling away from him on her hands and knees. When his eyes opened, however, he shifted his attention to her, shambling desperately on all fours as though she thought she had any hope in this state of escaping the fastest thing alive.  
The Black Blur.  
Even so, Cinos moved toward her slowly. He dragged the crowbar behind him along the stone passageway, delighting in the loud and foreboding sound that it made. Roxanna crawled until she had nowhere to go, and turned with her back against the rock, huddled, to look up at the dark hedgehog who stood over her. She looked into his green eyes and saw nothing beyond them apart from a black, sucking abyss.  
Cinos did not smile when he lifted the crowbar above his head. He simply stared back at her without a trace of emotion, and then brought the iron bar down hard.

It struck the rock wall with a splintering crunch. Cinos frantically ripped at the stones until they gave way, grunting and snarling with the effort. His hands blistered and began to bleed, but he didn't seem to notice.  
Roxanna, seeing that the dark hedgehog had temporarily found something more pressing in urgency than cold blooded murder, took the opportunity to crawl away from him and keep moving until she reached safety. The next time he saw her, she knew that she would not be so lucky as to earn another reprieve. The porcupine slinked away into the shadows and disappeared.  
Cinos was reduced to such manual labour to proceed further in these caves, as he had used up the remainder of his resin-grenades, but it didn't faze him. He had to keep going, he must, it was so close. He continued ripping at the wall until he had created a hole big enough to squeeze through, and entered the chamber that lay beyond it. The four stones he already carried with him screamed louder the moment he saw what he had come for, and their cacophony threatened to rip his mind apart. The one coherent thought he managed to produce was that he had surely won, for there was no way that Sonic would get here in time.  
With a grunt, he thrust the crowbar into the wall in an effort to dislodge the embedded Rune of Awakening from its ancient slumber.

XXXVII

Sonic and Espio heard and felt several explosions from some distance up ahead since entering the formerly subaquatic lake cavern, and it was clear that Cinos was blowing his way further into the mountains with whatever explosives he still had with him. He knew exactly where to find what he was looking for, which meant they didn't have much time to stop him.  
The cavern was slippery, coated almost entirely with moss and seaweed and other things that grew in stagnant bodies of water over time. They had to exert some amount of energy and care just to keep from slipping and falling. And the fishy, mildewy stench was almost unbearable.  
"Somehow, this seems appropriate," Espio said, "This place, I mean. This rotting pit of stink and mould, it's like the perfect place to find that monster of a twin of yours."  
"Have a walk around the antiverse sometime," Sonic replied, "It makes this place seem like a candy store."  
They fell silent for a while, and then Sonic spoke again.  
"I'm glad you're with me, Espio."  
"Hey," the chameleon said, "To the end, bro."  
"There's one thing I still don't quite understand, though."  
"What's that?"  
"It's _why_ you're still with me. I mean, you're still a skeptic. I know you don't believe Cinos can do what he thinks he can do. Do you even believe in the antiverse? Why would you be so dedicated to a quest that you don't think has any real purpose?"  
"What I believe or don't believe about Cinos and his supposed Old Ways doesn't have much bearing on my resolve."  
"So why have you come all this way?"  
Espio shrugged. "Because it's the right thing to do. I don't know about gods and monsters, parallel universes and magic spells, but there are some things I do know. I know that Cinos is a psychotic and a murderer. I know that he has the desire and the initiative to hurt and kill innocent people, people I care about. And I know that you are a hero, and the most noble person I know, and if there is something that you think needs to be done to make the world a better place, then I think of it as an honour to be by your side, helping you get it done."  
"That's about the most flattering thing anybody's ever said to me."  
"I know. Sonic, if you die, can I have your CD collection?"  
"I'll think about it."  
The cave suddenly became dryer and less slippery, and piles of rubble and a chaotic scene of recent destruction indicated that Cinos had detonated an explosive, here. The cave had ended, but Cinos had apparently known very well that there were more beyond, and had blown out this wall to get to them. What they came to was a series of natural subterranian tunnels that had probably been completely inclosed since time immemorial. It was an enormous relief to walk on dry land again. The stench of the mildewed caves faded, too, replaced by a faint odour that Sonic couldn't quite identify.  
As they walked through these new tunnels, Sonic ran a hand along the walls and found that orange-brown stains came away on his gloves, and the rock crumbled away a little.  
"Hey, check this out," he said. "These caves are, like, sandstone or something. Soft rock."  
"So what?"  
"Well, it's kind of a bad sign. Cinos is going around just blowing holes in it everywhere with powerful explosives. If we're not lucky, he's going to bring the whole place down on our heads. I can already see places where the rock has fractured in great big cracks, there and there. A big enough boom in the wrong place, and we're all pancakes."  
"Well, at least Cinos will be too."  
"Yeah, and we won't have to pay for our burial."  
They came to a wide cavern, a massive underground bubble of sorts, and were stunned to find that the walls, floor and ceiling were covered in small crystals, almost as though they had stumbled into an enormous geode. They twinkled in the dim light. The strange, unidentified smell was stronger in here, and seemed to emanate from the tunnels ahead.  
Espio ran a hand along the walls, amazed. "It's beautiful," he said.  
"Don't stop to sight-see," Sonic warned. "Hey, you know what? I think I know what that weird smell is. It smells just like somewhere I was once before, under the mountains on the Floating Island. I think it's sulfur. There were crystals on the walls there, too. I think these caverns are volcanic."  
"More bad news, if Cinos is blowing up the joint."  
As though to confirm this, there was a dull roar, almost inaudible, rising up from deep in the ground. The caverns shook a little, and tiny pieces of rock broke off from above and fell to the ground. It lasted a few moments and then stopped, but Sonic and Espio fell dead silent.  
"I didn't like the sound of that," Sonic said after a while, in a low voice. "Come on, let's get going."  
They didn't get going, however. Somebody blocked their way. Somebody who was bigger than both Sonic and Espio combined.  
"_Ronin!_" the figure roared.  
He had come out of the darkness silently like a stalking predator, a ten foot tall mobian grizzly bear with a chest like a billboard and limbs like fur-covered telegraph poles. Espio cried out in alarm, knowing something about stealth himself and still having not noticed this beast until he lumbered out of the shadows. Sonic looked up at the stranger in terror, imagining being punched in the head by one of those tightly balled fists, how it might create an effect not dissimilar to a watermelon being hit with a hammer.  
"Who are _you?_" he demanded. Whoever it was, he clearly wasn't having a good day. The bear's face was a map of fury. Sonic noticed that he wore a patch over one eye, and was missing fingers from one of his hands.  
"You played us for fools, Shapesk," the bear snorted. "You played us all for fools. You killed people, the very people we were trying to save, you _killed_ them. And now I'm going to kill you."  
Sonic realised that he had become the victim of mistaken identity, and unfortunately he wasn't optimistic about his chances of convincing his attacker that the hedgehog he sought was in fact his evil twin from a parallel reality.  
"Hey, cool down a little," he said, holding both of his hands up to show he was unarmed. The stranger didn't seem to care. It was clear that he wasn't interested in a fair fight anyway.  
Sonic was about to speak again, but the bear leapt forward and swung his mighty fist in a left hook. Sonic was quick enough to duck, and the punch connected with the cave wall, causing a small avalanche.  
The hedgehog saw no alternative but to flee. He wasn't going to fight this anguish-wracked stranger. He didn't want to hurt him (after all, the bear was actually their ally, he just didn't know it) and he wanted even less to be hurt _by_ him.  
"Espio, let's go!" Sonic ran from the bear's wrath, back to where Espio had taken cover. Unfortunately, their attacker had managed to get around in front of them, blocking their progress through the tunnels, and the only way to go was back in the direction they had come. More fortunate was the fact that the cavern was quite dark, and it was fairly easy to hide. Sonic and Espio found a niche behind a rock that hid them quite effectively, and huddled inside.  
"_Come back, you coward!_" the bear roared, pounding on the stone walls, "_You mess with the people of this city, you mess with me! Whatever you want outta that cave, you'll have to go through me first!_"  
"Who is that?" Espio demanded in a whisper, his eyes wide and terrified, "He's as big as a house!"  
"I dunno, but he's none too fond of speedy blue hedgehogs. He's barricading the only way forward, we have to think of a way to get past him, and quick."  
Sonic imagined Cinos peering out of a mirror and cackling. _Go ahead, my brother. You've already helped me drown all those people, not to mention having sacrificed two of your friends. Why not kill this guy too? It's all part of your becoming, Sonic. Fight fire with fire. Fight evil with evil. Fall for me, Sonic, _become_ me._  
"Could we beat him if we fought him?" Espio asked.  
"I don't want to fight him," Sonic replied, "I think I could take him down, God knows I've reduced bigger robots to scrap, but he's no robot. Technically he's on our side, an innocent. And that's not to mention the fact that he would probably only need to connect one punch to kill me stone dead. Look at the _mitts_ on that guy. Maybe I can lure him out of the way and run past him."  
Espio shook his head. "Sure, but he'd pursue us. He has to be taken out of the picture, we can't be fighting him and Cinos at the same time. We haven't got much time left. Do you think he can be reasoned with?"  
The bear pounded on the wall, and by the sound it made, it seemed he might be able to bring this cave down with his fury alone. "_Face me!_" he roared.  
"I don't think he's in the mood," Sonic said, "One of those _obliterate first, reason later_ kinda guys." He sighed. "Maybe I _will_ have to fight him. You're right, we're almost out of time. I can almost reach out and feel Cinos, and I'm sure he's either found the fifth rune, or he's close."  
"I have an idea," Espio said, "An alternative."  
Sonic smiled. "I really am glad you came along. You and your juicy brain. What do you have in mind?"  
"Take off your shoes. And your gloves."  
"Huh? What, are we getting in the spa?"  
"Trust me. Hurry up."  
Quietly, Sonic did as he was told. It was rare that he removed his gloves, and his shoes much moreso. His best friend Tails had given him the pair of red and white sneakers years ago (well, had stolen them), and Sonic wore them everywhere, often even slept in them. They were worn, but incredibly resilient, and still didn't have any holes. Looking down at his thickly-callused blue feet, he thought it funny that they were probably the body part that he actually saw the very least, considering they played such a central role in his life. He really only took off his shoes to bathe and to change his socks. (The latter he hadn't done in a year. Considering the amount of walking he had done in that year, the smell that filled the caverns upon their removal almost completely masked the sulfur and mildew of the caves.)  
Sonic watched in confusion and amusement as Espio put on his shoes and his gloves. Both sets were a very poor fit, the shoes too small and the gloves too big.  
"Espio, buddy, _what_ are you doing?"  
The chameleon didn't reply, but wearing Sonic's clothes, he reached out and laid his hands on the hedgehog's shoulders. Sonic still couldn't get used to the sight of Espio physically changing colour, as he did now. The hedgehog's royal blue spread like spilled ink from his spines onto Espio's scales, eventually covering his entire body and masking his natural violet. He took his hands away and smiled.  
"What, are you supposed to be me?" Sonic asked. "You don't look anything _like_ me."  
It was true. Espio was shorter than Sonic, and a different shape. He had no spines, and his head was encased in something like a bony reptillian frill. Not to mention the single yellow horn that poked out of his forehead, the colour of which Espio could not change.  
"Maybe not," he said, "But it's the best chance we've got, isn't it? Besides, it's dark, and I don't exactly intend on letting him get a good look at my face. I'm going to let him see me, and then I'm going to run. Fast. Lure him away from the tunnel so that you can go ahead."  
It was a strange plan, but it was inventive, and good enough. And Sonic had the strange idea that it was what was supposed to happen. Why else had he been allowed to take a colour-changing chameleon with him to his final stand?  
"Okay," he said, "It's crazy enough to work. But where do you want to meet up with me later?"  
Espio's smile faded a little, and he sighed.  
"I don't think I will be, Sonic. You have to go on."  
"But, Espio! I thought we were doing this together, remember? Together to the very end!"  
"This guy has to be far away when the time comes for you to do what you have to do," Espio said, "For your safety and for his."  
Sonic was very saddened, but he understood. He had a job to do. The purpose of his friends was to make it possible for him to do this job. Roxanna had known it, and Niles had known it. As did Espio.  
The hedgehog put a hand on Espio's shoulder. "I'm going to see you again, buddy. If you're skeptical about everything else, then at least believe that. This is not goodbye."  
"I believe it, Sonic."  
"I could never have done this without you, you know that. I'd be long dead, a corpse in the desert with vultures picking at my face."  
Espio laughed. "I believe that too."  
"You take care. If this guy catches you, he won't hesitate-"  
"Sonic?"  
"Yeah?"  
The chameleon nodded. "Get Cinos," he said. "You get him, Sonic. Get him for me."  
"For all of you," Sonic replied, "For everybody. For Mobius."  
"You have to shout. It has to be your voice."  
For a moment, Sonic didn't understand what Espio meant. But the chameleon crawled out of the niche, stood and began waving his arms, and Sonic understood. It had to be his voice.  
"Hey, Big Ugly!" Sonic shouted, "Over here! You wanna fight me, you gotta catch me!"  
The bear roared in fury and launched himself at Espio, fists thrusting like two sledgehammers. Espio turned and ran out of the cavern, back through the tunnels that led to the lake bed, and the bear pursued. They ran right past Sonic, who hid quietly and cautiously in the shadows. The footsteps of his friend and the snarling of his pursuer faded away, and at last Sonic was left with his own breathing.  
When he crawled out into the open and went on his way, Sonic was naked and alone.

XXXVIII

Such a long distance had Sonic travelled over the past twelve months. The year came full circle as he wandered these caves, and so had his quest. For all his adventures, all the friends he had made, the battles lost and won, he walked this last stretch alone. His Kindred had served its purpose, brought Sonic all the way to this final destination, the site of his last stand. It was all about him, now. The two of them. Sonic and Cinos. One hedgehog and his reflection.  
Sonic was shocked when he passed through another of his evil twin's makeshift grenade-crater doorways and stepped into the cavernous depths of a volcano. Shocked, because he had seen this place before. In his mind. He had stood here during his Awakening with Roxanna, the journey of knowledge they had embarked upon together.  
_(The Prophecy tells of the end of the age of the Dual Realms, where one mortal is to collect the five pieces of the Stone and reunite them in the flaming core of Mazsha's mighty heart. The mortal, draped in a brilliant blue, enters the portal of the spirital Awakening, and here he transcends his mortality, he enters the realm of souls and absorbs the spiritual energies of the universe into himself. Even the Gods bow to him as he undoes creation and remakes the world in His image.)_  
This is where the Old People prophecised that a blue mortal would take in the power of the Runes and undo creation. Thousands of years ago, they had _seen_ Cinos, had actually seen these events unfolding to their catastrophic climax. Taking in the enormity of this, Sonic flashed back to his coversation with the spectre of Kethriel Rosethorne, about the nature of the written/unwritten future.  
If the porcupines had seen this so many years ago, actually come forward and watched this happening, then was the future in fact an inevitable fate? Had Kethriel lied, or been ignorant? Was Sonic doomed to defeat after all, a victim of the impassable barrier of fate that dictated the be-all and end-all of how things were to play out? After coming so far, physically and mentally, it would be nothing if not a cruel joke, a horrendous irony.  
Sonic shook his head, gritted his teeth, knotted his brow, clenched his fists, walked onward. The answer was _no_. After everything that had been sacrificed, every_one_, Sonic wasn't going to let fate or God or the Old People or anybody else knock him on his back at the very end. Cinos was going down. This was the only outcome that Sonic was going to allow.  
The volcanic caverns roared and rumbled beneath his feet. He looked down from the side of the ledge he was standing on, looked down into the flowing river of magma, and was suddenly very concerned about the strength and integrity of the stone he was walking on.  
Molten rock had shaped these tunnels into strange designs over the centuries. Sonic looked up and saw the ceiling above was composed almost entirely of loosely-suspended boulders, probably igneous rock thrown up by some ancient eruption, piled together, cooled, and hollowed out again by the molten flow. The entrance that Cinos had created with an explosion had run dozens of thick cracks all the way along the soft-rock walls and right up to the ceiling. Sonic wondered whether the low, steady rumbling he now felt might be the precursor to a cave-in triggered by Cinos' grenades. Certainly the place looked as though somebody yelling too loud might do it in.  
Despite the complexity of the caverns, there was only one path that Cinos could have taken, unless he had learned to swim through magma, so Sonic followed it. He saw a few spots of blood and wondered who in his evil twin's party they belonged to. He had the grave idea that it was Roxanna's.  
The caverns narrowed and declined into a myriad of dark tunnels, and this was where the trail became uncertain. Cinos could have taken one of several paths. Sonic searched the ground for some sign of which way he should go. His heart was picking up rhythm, and he began to feel the first signs of panic creeping in, well aware that his time was running out. Cinos had the five Runes of Awakening, Sonic was certain of it, and he was probably in the process of unlocking their powers while Sonic was looking at the floor here in the tunnels.  
Then, a sign. A short distance inside one of the tunnels was another droplet of blood. Just one, but it was enough.  
Sonic was still staring at it when he ran into Rasputan Nethergate.  
He almost collided with the porcupine, and looked up, startled, staring into his eyes. They stood there for a moment, eyes locked on eyes, and Sonic was so shocked in that moment that he didn't even properly register the noise

(bang)

that had reverberated throughout the caverns. It seemed so distant, an echoing crack, so loud and so sudden. Sonic regained his senses and realised that his entire body had spun around a quarter of a full turn, as though he had been _yanked_ or hit.  
He felt cold. Molten rock all around him, and he had run cold, the only exception was the stream of deep warmth running down his arm. Terrible warmth.  
The hedgehog and the porcupine continued to stare into each other's eyes, both expressions blank, eyes wide. Sonic took a lurching, stumbling step backward.  
There was another sound. This time Sonic heard it loud and clear.

_**BANG!**_

The crisp report of a gunshot, like a firecracker, and a stabbing pain in his chest. He could see Rasputan's pistol, now, smoking from the barrel, trained on him.  
Another stream of warmth, running down his chest, down his stomach.  
Sonic fell to his knees.  
Rasputan was trembling, jittering, nibbling on his fingernails, shifting his weight from one foot to the other and back again like some strange dance.  
"I got the hedgehog," he rasped.  
Sonic stammered something incomprehensible and gritted his teeth against the growing pain.  
A smile crept its way across Rasputan's face, and he began to giggle, and then to laugh.  
"_I got the hedgehog!_"

XXXIX

In all his years as an adventurer and Freedom Fighter, Sonic had taken many exotic injuries and avoided thousands of flying bullets, but never until now had he actually been shot. He had always imagined what a gunshot would feel like - a searing hot, sharp little fragment ripping through skin, bone, organ - but he had never expected the reality, which was that he hardly even noticed it had happened.  
That was, until he looked down.  
Two bloody holes now breeched his body, puncturing his right shoulder and lung. A dull, thudding pain wracked his torso, and blood dripped onto the rock beneath him in dark, gruesome spatters.  
Sonic, weakened, paralysed, dropped to his side and lay there, propped up by his good left arm, the wounded one limp across his body. He panted softly and looked up at Rasputan.  
The druid porcupine trained the pistol on him and chuckled.  
"Don't you go anywhere, Billy-blue. Mister K needs some privacy if he's gonna perform the ritual just right. That's the problem, y'see, with the Old Magicks. They need so much _patience_, so much concentration. Not at all like this sweet _New_ Magicks."  
Sonic's gut wrenched and he felt as though he might throw up. Instead, he threw his head aside and coughed, loud, deep, hard coughs. Blood and spittle sprayed out of his mouth.  
"This new magic," Rasputan continued, "This new kind of magic, Mister K calls it _technology_, it's a lot more user-friendly. Take this, for example, this... _pistol-stick_. It's a warrior's dream, it is. No more chants, no more herbs and incantations and candles, you just pull the trigger-"  
Rasputan raised the gun and fired it into the air. When the loud report went off, Sonic knew that he heard the walls crack a little, the stones in the ceiling groaned and the foundations trembled with a deep, low rumbling sound.  
"_Boom!_" the porcupine shrieked, "Whatever you point it at just dies. And you know the best thing? _You don't even have to be a sorcerer to use it!_ Now, if these had been around, back in the time of the Bloodmongers... well, things woulda been just a little bit different in this world, dontcha think? There wouldn't be quite so many _infidels_ running around. Like you for example. Just look at how easy it roasted _your_ turkey."  
"You serve him like it's in your best interests," Sonic rasped, "Do you think he's going to share his power with you? Do you think he's got some demigod position vacant for his annoying little tag-along?"  
"I serve Big-K just as well as I'm able to," Rasputan replied, "I'm a smart one, I am. Kinnos might cast me away in the End Times or he might not, but I got a better chance'a survival if I help him out. And if not, then at least my end is gonna be a whole lot less painful than yours."  
"You can-" Sonic coughed again, spitting more blood into his hand. "You can stop him. Just shoot him like you shot me, finish him before he's too powerful to be finished."  
"Ain't gonna happen, Billy-blue. There ain't no stopping the big K. It's all fated. Gonna happen no matter what." He chewed on his fingernail.  
Sonic glanced up at the unstable, rocky ceiling a few feet above their heads. He looked again at Rasputan, and wondered whether he would be able to make a run for it. Probably not - his injuries made him extremely weak, he didn't even know how much energy he had left. He might get a few steps and collapse, and the nervous porcupine would put a bullet in his head just for trying.  
But what other options did he have?  
He heard Sally (or was it Kethriel?) whisper in his ear.  
_Don't overlook the elephant in the living room._  
He glanced around the caves, his head swimming. Looked at the rocks, the magma, the blood. _Don't pass out, Sonic_.  
"It's not fated," he moaned, "You loon. It can be different. He doesn't have to win. If you don't want to save anybody else, at least save yourself."  
"Don't you call me a loon," the porcupine spat, "It makes me want to hurt you. Worse than I already have, I mean. And by the way, it _is_ fated. I've _seen_ it."  
"Oh yes, I'm sure you have," Sonic replied, "I'm sure you see lots of things in your head. I just don't put a lot of faith in the words of a guy who hears voices and thinks guns are magical."  
He coughed up more blood, and groaned in pain. The reality of the bullet in his lung had begun to settle in with his shocked nerves, and coughing felt like being stabbed.  
"Do you _doubt?_" Rasputan shrieked, and Sonic thought the sound of his voice actually made the caves rumble harder. A few small pebbles fell from above like stone rain. "Do you doubt, even now?"  
"Technology isn't magic, you nut, it's just an explosion in a tube." Sonic saw the porcupine's face twitch at the word _nut_, and began to get an idea. He glanced up again at the groaning, weakened stone ceiling.  
"Things such as these do not exist in the natural order of things," Rasputan growled through clenched teeth, "You can't just squeeze your finger and make things go boom-boom, not without divine _faith_ in the power of _Mazsha_ to make it happen. I've got the _faith_, Billy-blue, and that's why I'm holding the pistol-stick and you're full of holes. Kinnos has opened my eyes to the _true_ power of faith, you see. He's shown me all the miracles that Mazsha creates for the faithful. See these?" He pointed at his sneakers. "Magic shoes that never wear out. They feel like walking on clouds. And _this!_" He held out his hand and displayed the rings that adorned it, most notably the thick bauble of his mood-ring. "It actually _changes colour_ according to my _mood!_" he shrieked.  
Sonic couldn't help but be amused, even now, by the fact that Rasputan truly thought this tacky plastic children's toy, this chemical-filled bauble that changed colour depending on how warm and clammy his hand was, was actually an invaluable magical artifact powered by his faith in God. He watched the porcupine chewing his nails, smiling and staring daggers into the bleeding hedgehog at his feet.  
"Oh sure, it's magical," Sonic said, "So why is it black, Rasputan?"  
"Huh?" The druid held the bauble up in front of his own eyes. The ring was indeed black.  
"What does black represent, Rasputan?"  
The porcupine frowned, wiggled his fingers, waggled his hand in the air. He tapped the ring sharply on the side of the gun, and held it up again, still black.  
"Black is fear, isn't it Rasput-"  
"_Shut up!_" Rasputan shrieked, "You're not _worthy_ to speak of the gifts of Mazsha! You'll defile it with _heresy!_ You're defiling _me_, right now! _Defiler!_"  
"It is, isn't it? What are you afraid of, Rasputan? If Cinos has won and nothing can stop it, and I'm shot full of holes and you're holding the gun, what are you afraid of?"  
"_Nothing! Nothing!_" The porcupine pulled off the mood ring and flung it at the ground. "_I am Rasputan Nethergate, and I fear nothing!_"  
"Except the voices in your head? What are the voices telling you now, Rasputan?"  
The porcupine covered both of his ears with his hands and tried to drown out Sonic's voice. "_La la la la la!_"  
Sonic pulled himself to a sitting position despite the fierce pain, and exchanged glances between Rasputan and the rocky ceiling.  
"You're _pathetic!_" he shouted, "You're _psychotic!_ You're just a miserable, annoying little nobody-"  
"_Shut up! Shut up!_"  
"-who tags along with anyone who shows some guts, just because you don't have any courage of your own. You ridiculous little _nothing_. You intolerable _loser_. You raving, shrieking, wall-pounding-"  
"_Shut up or I'll shut you up!_"  
"-pillow-chewing, howl-at-the-moon, one-almond-short-of-a-full-sack-of-nuts _freaking lunatic!_"  
Rasputan thrust forward his gun and began pulling the trigger, screaming at the top of his lungs.  
"_I told you-_"  
_**BANG! BANG!**_  
"_-to shut-_"  
_**BANG! BANG!**_  
"_-up!_"  
_**BANG!** Click! Click! Click!_  
His rage screwed up his aim, but he hit Sonic twice. One bullet grazed his arm, slicing a wound into it just above the elbow, and another went into his gut. He cried out and fell forward, winded, clutching at his midsection as fresh blood began to flow, feeling winded.  
(_No, Sonic, get up. Get up now and move. Move or it will all be over right here._)  
Rasputan's face twisted into an expression of horror and intense confusion. He shook the gun violently, and pointed it at Sonic again.  
_Click! Click! Click!_  
The clicking of the empty pistol chambers was barely audible over the roaring of the cave. Small chunks of rock rained down in a steady shower from above. Then bigger chunks.  
Sonic forced himself, despite the unimaginable agony of his wounds, to his feet. He moved, limping, clutching at his gushing injuries, past Rasputan and into the deeper caves, the stable and rigid tunnels of solid rock carved out by centuries of rushing magma.  
(_Faster, Sonic, move faster_)  
Rasputan did not try to restrain him, he just kept trying to fire the empty gun, again and again and again.  
_Click! Click! Click!_  
"No! _No! It can't be!_"  
_Click! Click!_  
"It isn't fair! _It's not fair, you hear me!_"  
As Sonic moved into the tunnels, Rasputan threw the gun at him. It hit him in the back, and almost knocked him over in his weakened state, but he kept his footing.  
(_Just a little further_)  
Rasputan was looking up, now. The roar of the caves was almost deafening, punctuated by a powerful cracking sound from all around. Rock rained down on him like mortar in a collapsing building, and every so often a boulder hit the ground and smashed.  
"It isn't fair."  
Sonic didn't turn around to watch, but he winced when he heard the climactic cacophony that could only be the entire cavern collapsing into itself. He was shielded by the stable stone passage around him, but there would be no retreat now, not that way. The avalanche blocked off all light instantly as the mouth of the cave was covered. It felt like an earthquake, and Sonic had to lean on the wall to keep from falling over.  
When it ended, there was silence. Sonic could hear himself breathing, and realised his breathing was wet and gluggy, as though he was suffering from bronchitis. He buckled over as he was wracked by a painful coughing fit. His hand came away bloody, and he could taste more in his mouth.  
A lot more.  
Even so, he had to keep moving. As he stumbled forward, he saw something small and yellow in the darkness. Rasputan's mood ring. He picked it up and lurched onward.

XL

There was a light at the end of the tunnel. When Sonic saw this, the physical representation of a metaphor that was known the world over, he knew that he was going to die.  
His bullet-riddled body burned with pain as he stumbled onward in his ever-weakening state. He could feel the blood running down both of his legs. Shot four times, in his arms, his lung, his gut. None of them were quick kills, but they would indeed end him soon enough. Inside his body, he knew he was bleeding very badly, and the more blood he lost, the weaker his heart pumped. The only mystery was whether blood loss or drowning would be the ultimate prognosis. Every time he coughed, he tasted more warm copper.  
All the same, he knew only one concern - he must stop Cinos before his time ran out.  
Sonic the dying hedgehog approached the light one step after another. The light at the end of the tunnel. The end of his quest, his destiny, his life. It all ended here, and it was never an end that he would have imagined. Sometimes he had let his thoughts wander to the subject of his mortality, and wondered how he would die. He saw himself heroically fending off a hoard of robots, a hundred or two, beating them down with every spark of energy left in his limbs until finally they overwhelmed him. He saw himself leaping from a world-shattering explosion, his body riddled with debris, carrying a rescued damsel to safety before succumbing to his fate. He never imagined it would end here, a thousand miles from the Freedom Fighters, in some volcano, shot to bits by a porcupine he barely knew and who barely knew how to even use a gun.  
Oh well. It was as good a scenario as any, he supposed. Probably even a long time coming. He had lived his life far too dangerously. And he wouldn't have had it any other way.  
The light was brighter. An orange-red ambience that flickered a little. Sonic thought it was an unsettling omen that the light at the end of his tunnel was fire and brimstone. Still, he lurched forward. Step. Step. Step. Keep moving, Sonic. Keep awake, keep moving.  
His mind wandered, and to his delight and distress, his life began to flash before his eyes. His friends and enemies paraded themselves before him like a reunion marching band. Tails Prower, stubborn but spirited child, his best friend. Knuckles, the bull-headed echidna, who he respected deeply but rarely got along with. Sally Acorn, princess and warrior. Amy Rose, beautiful, optimistic. Kethriel... Finally, Espio, Niles and Roxanna, no less important, those with whom he had shared a kind of soul-bond.  
And then there was Robotnik. Mecha Sonic. Spinster. Zero Tolerance.  
And Cinos.  
Sonic lurched ever onward, continued until the light bathed him. He had reached the light at the end of one tunnel. Soon it would happen again.  
_But not before he did what he had to do._

XLI

Cinos stood in the chamber at the end of the passage.

This cavern was huge, and dominated by a lake of magma that stretched as far as Sonic could see. It lit up this entire cave with a flickering red light. This was the chamber that Sonic had seen in his Awakening with Roxanna. He knew without having to look that there was an outcrop of cliff overhanging the fiery lake. That was where Cinos was supposed to stand when he remade the universe.  
"Hi, Sonic," the dark hedgehog said without even looking up. He appeared to be concentrating hard, in the middle of some highly engaging task. Sonic saw that the five Runes of Awakening had been placed in a circle atop the cliff outcrop. The stone that Sonic had brought here himself, the Rune of Nine, as well as the two that Cinos had taken from Stratosphereon and the Pit of the Chameleon Cabal, and finally the two that Sonic hadn't even seen, the stone from Septennia and the one that Cinos had found here.  
Sonic wasn't surprised that the symbol on the latter was the rune that Cinos used to represent his cult in Chagrin Las Mortis. That symbol, something like the letter 'M', had been carved into his followers' foreheads.  
"It ends here, Cinos," Sonic said, stumbling into the cavern.  
"I know it does, Sonic," the other replied, "That's not news to me. It might not go the way you'd hoped, though." He pointed to each Rune, counting them, making sure they were in the right place. He nudged one with his foot a little, and then stepped into the circle.  
"Your friend is dead," Sonic said, coughed and stumbled against a wall. He held out Rasputan's ring, and flicked it onto the ground.  
Cinos looked up at him for the first time, and smiled. "What, _that_ nut? You didn't do anything but a favour to me, Sonic. He'd outlived his purpose. It looks like he got a few good shots in first, though. I'd hate to see the guy who lost, as they say."  
"I've come to stop you."  
The dark hedgehog laughed. "_How?_ You can barely stand. Hey, look, I'm glad you could make it. I wanted you to see this. Sit down and enjoy the show, will you?"  
Sonic tried to approach his evil twin, but pain ripped through him and he buckled, fell to his knees, clutched at his gut with a wail.  
_No!_ his mind screamed, _Get up! You have to get up!_  
But he couldn't. He could only watch.  
Cinos began to chant in a language that Sonic didn't understand. He was reading the symbols on the Runes, reading aloud the terrible sentence they formed together, over and over. As he did, the stones began to glow with their own light.  
Sonic dropped to his hands and knees and crawled. He didn't know how he was going to do it, but he was going to reach Cinos and stop him. _Somehow_. There had to be a way. Despite the ridiculously improbable nature of this goal, the thought of failure never crossed his mind. Couldn't.  
As Cinos shouted out the incantation, he closed his eyes and slowly began to leviate. He raised his arms out to his sides as he became weightless, his feet drifting away from the ground. The Runes, glowing with their own light, began to shimmer and fade as though they weren't entirely a part of reality.  
To Sonic's horror, the effect spread out from them. Like the air was folding in on itself. Everything in the cavern took on an ethereal shimmer, and took on the intangible unreality of dreams. The rock under Sonic's hands and knees itself seemed to twist and fold and stretch. Sonic felt as though he was sliding into the antiverse - but only going halfway.  
"Do you see that, Sonic?" Cinos called, "That's the two realms preparing to meld into one. Things are gonna look kind of weird in here right before I devour everything. Like a kaleidoscope."  
Another pain floored Sonic again. He watched as the five stones glowed so brightly that they became white beacons. And then something else began to happen - a tendril rose up from each of the Runes, five thin white-glowing ropes of indiscernable making. They moved with their own power, curling into each other and melding into a single entity, one thick tendril that curled and twisted in the air as it grew.  
Sonic knew what this was. It was the Whitewyrm. Only it wasn't a worm at all, but a whip of energy, like the umbilicus of all reality. It snapped back and forth, twisted and flailed, and then latched on to Cinos' leg. Almost intimately, like a snake on a limb, it curled around the dark hedgehog's waist and flowed into him.  
Sonic found a new burst of strength and used it to hurl himself at Cinos. The two hedgehog's collided, and began to wrestle. The moment they touched, bizarre static filled the air, zapping both hedgehogs with pinprick shocks. Cinos angrily grappled with his twin, beating into him with furious strength.  
"You're an _idiot!_" he shouted, "The process has started, it's not going to be stopped! Look at you, you're like the walking dead! What have I said to you, Sonic, time and time again? You're not strong enough to face me, you never have been! Why can't you _concede_ to that?"  
"Because it's not true," Sonic choked.  
Cinos, the Whitewyrm still coiled around him, the energy of two universes flowing into him, grasped Sonic and wrestled him into a headlock. Sonic was trapped by his stronger twin's powerful grip, and found himself staring down into the open lake of magma, bubbling below.  
"I can kill you without even trying," Cinos rasped, "In fact, I think I will."  
He let go of Sonic and kicked him off the cliff.  
Sonic screamed as he went into a freefall - and then jerked to a stop. Cinos had grabbed him by the hand, and he turned around to face his dark twin. He was leaning backwards off the cliff, one foot planted on the ground and the other dangling in midair.  
The only thing preventing him from falling to his death was the fact that Cinos was holding his hand. At the point of contact, static charge popped and crackled, and stabbed Sonic's hand with painful jabs. He assumed that Cinos felt the same, this strange energy that ordinarily prevented them from standing too close comfortably, but he didn't relinquish his hold.  
"You see?" Cinos said, "I can kill you just by letting go. That is the power I hold over you, Sonic, and it always has been. I won't unless I have to, though. I _really_ want you to see this."  
Power unfathomable flowed from the Runes into the Whitewyrm and into Cinos. The world seemed to waver and flatten out. Entire boulders vanished from sight, and others appeared. Some things seemed to exist in two worlds at once, others in neither. It hurt Sonic's head to watch. He shifted his gaze to his hand - and shouted in alarm.  
At the point where Cinos held him, their hands seemed to be melting into one another.  
Cinos had removed his gloves, and Sonic had relinquished his to Espio. The two hedgehogs' naked hands seemed to join together in one clump, intertwined, like conjoined twins. Cinos followed his gaze, and laughed.  
"Of course!" he exclaimed, "The worlds are joining together, becoming one! And so are we, Sonic! After all, we're the same, aren't we?"  
"_We are not the same!_" Sonic screamed, "_I'm not like you!_"  
"Sure we are. We're one and the same. After all, you killed all your friends, didn't you? Sure you did. And why? Because you were _so obsessed_ with getting this far and bringing me down that you didn't care about anything else. You shed your morality because it was weighing you down, and you made it all the way here. But you still can't beat me, my brother, because you're full of holes and I'm dangling you over a pool of lava. So you have two options - you can relinquish the pitiful remains of your heroism and join with me in glorious evil, or you can naively hold on to the idea that you're still a good guy, in which case you will die and I will still win. Now, Sonic - choose."  
Their arms twining together like a woven basket, and the world around them curling back on itself, Sonic and Cinos stared into each others eyes. As they did, Sonic began to feel something else. His pain faded away, and everything seemed to darken until nothing existed but him and his evil twin. When he realised what was happening, he tried to resist. But Cinos forced it, and there was no going back. Sonic felt himself falling into the abyss behind the dark hedgehog's emerald green eyes.  
Screaming and flailing, Sonic experienced his fourth Awakening.

XLII

The two hedgehogs' minds came together, merged, on an empty street in an empty city. The wind howled and softly caressed Sonic's spines. The street was lined with mirrors, and at the other end of it, he saw Cinos.  
_I'm not really here. I'm in a cave, dangling above a lake of fire._  
(Sure you are, my brother. You're here and there. Two places at once, body and soul.)  
Cinos was distant, like a blue speck on an unending stretch of road through a ghost city, but he spoke to Sonic direct to his brain and sounded like he was standing an inch away. Distance wasn't a factor here. They were together in Sonic's mind. Or in Cinos'. Or both at once.  
Sonic looked down at his body and saw that it was completely intact. No bullet wounds.  
(Just like new) Cinos thought/said.  
Hatred for this cloned monster welled up in Sonic and overflowed. Cinos had destroyed him and threatened to destroy everything he loved and cared about. The quest to stop this happening had consumed Sonic's entire life. Now he was here, and Cinos was here, and the moment of truth had come at last.  
Sonic began to walk along the street.  
At the other end, Cinos did the same.  
The walk became a jog.  
The jog became a run.  
The run became a sprint.  
The mirrors either side of the road whizzed past, became one long line, a blur. Sonic focused on one thing as he ran - the growing image of Cinos in his sights. The hedgehogs ran toward each other at a speed that defied the limits of possibility, two trains on a collision course, two speeding jets, two rockets, two bullets. Sonic and Cinos jumped in unison, curled their bodies into spindashes. At the speed of thought, the two spinning blue balls collided in the air.  
At the moment of impact, every mirror shattered. The street cracked and exploded. The buildings burst and collapsed on themselves. The city of their minds was obliterated and reduced to rubble.  
Sonic and Cinos fought. They punched and kicked, leaped and rolled. At a phenomenal speed their limbs moved, the two fastest things alive, competing for the title.  
_I am the victor, Cinos. I am better than you, you sick freak of nature._  
(Go ahead, Sonic, call me names, get it all out! Let out that anger. You know deep down that I am stronger. You've always known it.)  
The hedgehogs wrestled and grappled, throwing each other down, scratching, hitting.  
_That's a lie, you're full of lies and I recognise that now._  
(Believe what you want! You're always going to be sick with concern, and it makes you sluggish. Morality and love is like a thousand ton weight.)  
_You're wrong. The things I care about inspire me to fight, never to give up. Persistence always wins out._  
(You can't persevere if you're dead, Sonic.)  
_I won't lose._  
(Yes you will. Permit me to demonstrate.)  
Cinos sent Sonic a mental image. A vision of his friend Tails, dead. Face down in a ditch, his twin tails limp and lifeless.  
Sonic wailed in horror, and recoiled, putting his hands to his head. Cinos proceeded to thrash into him with double the ferocity, and Sonic was quickly floored, his twin beating the stuffing out of him. He wanted to strike back, to fight fire with fire, but he didn't know how.  
(Yeah, Sonic, that's right. Just try to think of something that'll shock me, something that'll frighten me that much. You won't. I care about _nothing_.)  
Sonic retreated. He rolled away and got back on his feet.  
(Chicken.)  
_Come and get me._  
Cinos did. He launched himself at Sonic, and the hedgehogs began to thrash and fight again, rolling around the crumbled street, kicking, punching.  
(This is fun, isn't it!)  
_I'm going to kill you._  
(Ooh, look out. When I'm done with you I'm going to make that image a reality, my brother, I'm going to make little fox-boy suffer in ways you can't even imagine. And then when I'm done I'm going to devour his soul.)  
Sonic growled and thrashed in growing fury.  
(And then I'm going to take my time with everybody else in Knothole, starting with that cute little honey Amy Rose. She'll bleed, Sonic, she'll bleed bad.)  
In a moment of heightened rage, Sonic managed to trip Cinos over backward, and he fell upon the dark hedgehog, holding him down. Cinos sent him images of all of his dear friends, beaten and mutilated in creative ways, and Sonic shook his head violently and screamed. With gritted teeth, he held Cinos in a choke-hold against the ground, and drove his fist into the dark hedgehog's face, _again_ and _again_ and _again_ and _again_ and _again_.  
But Cinos was laughing. _Howling_ laughter in fact. And it only made Sonic angrier.  
(That's right, Sonic! Embrace the hatred! Embrace the violence! Embrace the call of evil! Your inhibitions are the last thing to go. Fall for me. It won't be long, now.)  
Sonic pulled his fist back for another strike, but realised for the first time that there was no blood. Not here. And it seeded a concern in his mind, a kernal of insight.  
(What's wrong? Come on, you have the upper hand! You just got your second wind! You're not getting cold feet, are you? Or have you finally decided to concede?)  
_You're stalling._  
(Excuse me?)  
_We can't hurt each other here. This isn't how I'm supposed to beat you. You're only stalling me because you know that time is ticking over in the real world. The power is still flowing into you._  
(You came all this way so that you could stand and fight me, to prove you're better than me. This is your chance, Sonic.)  
_I agree. But this isn't the way._  
He stood up, and allowed Cinos to do the same. The two identical hedgehogs stood in the demolished city, facing each other. Cinos hissed at his twin.  
(You're still so certain. I've _shown_ you. Why do you persist, Sonic? After I've proven to you, again and again, that I am stronger and I will always beat you. What makes you so certain? What doubt remains? What makes you think that, despite mountains of evidence to the contrary, good can still overcome evil?)  
Sonic shrugged.  
_Faith._  
(What?)  
_Let's have a little discussion, Cinos._  
Cinos appeared wary, and Sonic could sense it in him. He wasn't afraid, per se, but he was treading lightly. He knew that, for maybe the first time in this entire journey, Sonic had severed his puppet strings. For the first time, Cinos didn't know what he was up to. He probed Sonic's mind for answers, but Sonic allowed the intrusion. He did not resist.  
(Sure. Talk away. We've got all the time in the world, my brother.)  
_This Awakening. This joining of souls. I don't really understand it, but I think I know its purpose._  
(Yes?)  
_Listen carefully._  
(I'm all ears.)  
_You're right, Cinos. We're the same._  
(Of course.)  
_Somewhere out in the world, there is a cave, and we are inside this cave. You are standing on a cliff overlooking a lake of molten rock. You are holding my hand, and I am dangling over the edge. Right?_  
Cinos was more wary, and he squinted at Sonic, probing his mind harder, but he found no method in his twin's investigation.  
(That's right.)  
_But we are the same. You and I, two parts of the one whole. Only our souls, our minds, are divergent. When we agree, we are indistinguishable. Right?_  
(...)  
_Isn't that what you have been trying to tell me all along?_  
(So you agree?)  
_That we are the same._  
(We are.)  
Sonic and Cinos looked deeply into each other's eyes. Sonic stepped toward his twin, and Cinos stepped back.  
_Somewhere out in the world, there is a cave,_ Sonic repeated, _and we are inside this cave, and we are the same. I am standing on a cliff. I am holding your hand, and you are dangling over the edge._ He smiled. _Right?_  
(What?)

XLIII

The lake of fire spread out under the two hedgehogs, vast and wide, more like an ocean. Sonic braced both of his feet on the rocky cliff and stood within the circle of five Runes, holding one arm out over the edge.  
Cinos had a look of sheer terror on his face, an expression that Sonic had never seen him make, and he clutched Sonic's hand with a crushing grip as he hung wide over the edge, over the ocean of magma.  
"_What have you done?_" he screamed, "_Change it back!_"  
Sonic saw that Cinos was now riddled with all of Sonic's bullet wounds. He himself was intact. They had not only switched places, they had switched _bodies_. But the Whitewyrm that coiled out from the glowing Runes was now wrapped around the hedgehog who hung out over the edge.  
_That's because it's not attached to his body,_ Sonic realised, _It's attached to his soul._  
"_What have you done, Sonic?_" Cinos demanded again, and though he grappled for safety, he was still at the mercy of his twin, his weight bared entirely by those merged hands.  
"I put things in perspective," Sonic replied, "It's the one flaw in your theory, Cinos. Your lack of morals makes you stronger in one way, but weaker in another. Weaker in the only way that counts."  
Cinos scowled. "What you can do, I can do, brother. I'll change us back."  
"No, you won't."  
"_I will defeat you!_"  
"No. You won't."  
The dark hedgehog screamed and thrashed, murderous rage filling his eyes, but after a moment he calmed. He closed his eyes, perhaps to count to ten, and then opened them and stared placidly back at Sonic.  
"So, that's the way it's going to be. It's just more reason for you to join with me, Sonic. After all, we are brothers. We complement each other. We both have strengths to cover each other's weaknesses. We could be so _strong_ together! You know that you want to, you've always known."  
Sonic looked down at Cinos' body, the body that used to be his own. Riddled with bullets, bleeding to death, dangling over oblivion. Cinos coughed up a lungful of blood and stared at it, horrified. His folly of beliefs had come back to him tenfold, earning him a destroyed, dying body. But he was still absorbing the power of the Runes, even now, and if it was allowed to continue then his wounds would not kill him. They would not matter at all.  
"Yours is an attractive lifestyle," Sonic told him, "But I reject it. I will always reject it. And the process you have begun, I can not allow you to finish. In the interest of the people I care about, the people you have exploited, and every resident of both of the worlds you intend to destroy, I must stop you."  
"Fall for me, Sonic."  
"Sorry, Cinos, but I'm afraid it's you who is going to fall."  
Sonic pulled back, let go, rejected Cinos with all of his strength. Their hands uncoupled, pulled apart, pulled away. Cinos, suspended by nothing, fell into oblivion. The Whitewyrm stayed with him until the end, wrapped around him like a bunjee-cord, but it did him no good.  
"_Fine!_" the dark hedgehog screamed as he fell, "_Take it! Take it all! Have it and _choke_ on it!_"  
Sonic didn't watch, but he heard the splash. Cinos fell into the lake of fire, and with a belch of yellow flame it devoured him utterly.

XLIV

And then, Sonic died.

At least, that was the way it felt. He knew the very instant of his evil twin's death, he felt it in every cell in his body, felt it in his very soul, and the sudden severance of the close mental connection they had shared almost struck him down. For a moment, he thought that it would kill him. For a moment, he thought that he _was_ dead.  
_I am dead_, his mind told him.  
He felt Cinos' demise so intimately that he swore he shared it. But it was the strength of his soul, a strength more considerable than that of Cinos, that convinced him otherwise. His world reformed itself, his reality returned, and he saw that he was still alive. Still alive, still the fastest thing that was.  
The Runes of Awakening blazed on in their white fire, and the Whitewyrm flailed and thrashed angrily in the air, bounced off the walls, whipped and snapped about like a wounded snake. The process was not supposed to be interrupted. The soul it was attached to had been extinguished, and the Wyrm needed somebody else into whom to inject the energies of all reality. It made its choice.  
Before Sonic could escape, the Whitewyrm snapped around him like a whip, coiled itself around his every limb, every part of him inside and out. The force of it knocked him through the air, and the powerful spiritual entity threw him about like a rag doll before it slammed him into the ground and began to do its work.  
"_No!_" Sonic screamed, and tried to abort it, tried to escape it, but the Whitewyrm was unsympathetic to his pleas and held him in place. This was going to go ahead, it demanded, and it didn't care who was recipient to its powers. It had been summoned, and it would not be summoned in vain. One does not open Pandora's box half way.  
It was now that Sonic understood the paradox of the Old People's prophecy, how they had seen a future that had been nevertheless unwritten. There had not been a single possible outcome, but two, like a fork in the road, and both outcomes involved a blue hedgehog standing in the red heart of Mobius and inheriting the world. Sonic had made the choice, but it had been a joke choice, because now _he himself was going to be the one who undid reality_.  
"_I don't want this!_" he screamed, "_Take it back and keep it, I don't want it!_" But it was no good. The Runes injected their terrible energy into him, and he felt himself rising higher, ever higher, surpassing his mortality, surpassing time and space and everything else.  
Sonic, unwilling but exhausted, finally submitted.

XLV

"Sonic."  
The blue hedgehog opened his eyes, and saw only white. Lying on his back, he surveyed his surroundings, but found there was nothing to survey. He lay alone in a formless, colourless ether. He didn't even cast a shadow.  
Somebody stood above him, looking down. Sonic sat up and looked the other up and down. It was Kethriel Rosethorne. The elder hedgehog smiled and saluted.  
"Howdy, kiddo."  
"Hey," Sonic replied. "How's things?"  
"Things are... a little slow."  
Sonic nodded and stood up. He looked around again at the boundless universe of white.  
"Well, I guess this means I'm dead, right? Are you here to usher me through the pearly gates?"  
"Actually, Sonic, you're very much alive. More alive than you were before, in fact. Uh, if that makes sense."  
"It doesn't really."  
"Well, I'll put it this way. How would you like a great big chilli-dog with all the extras?"  
"Is that an offer? Because it's cruel to taunt." But Sonic noticed, even as he was speaking, that he was holding one. An enormous bun, dripping with meat and sauce, was nested comfortably in his hand. He felt the warmth of it, and it seemed almost like it had always been there.  
"You took the power of the Runes into you," Kethriel explained.  
"Oh, yeah. That."  
"And now, you're here."  
"Where, exactly, is here?"  
Kethriel looked around. "Well, technically it's not anywhere. Or, it's everywhere. Or, both mean the same thing, under the circumstances."  
"And what are those circumstances?" Sonic looked at the food in his hand warily, as though it might be poisoned, and realised that he wasn't the least bit hungry. He imagined it away, and it was gone.  
"This," Kethriel said, "Is your clean slate. You've been granted the power to remake the world, Sonic."  
"The whole world?"  
"The _whole_ world. Atom to galaxy. All of reality is your canvas, it's an artist's dream."  
Sonic laughed. "I'm no artist, Keth."  
"Well, you are now. So, what's it gonna be, kiddo? You've got a lot of work ahead of you. Six whole days of it, but you can take Sunday off if you like."  
"I-" Sonic stammered, and stared blankly into the white nothingness, "I don't have a clue."  
"A little daunting?"  
"I wouldn't even know where to begin."  
Kethriel smiled and put a hand on his shoulder.  
"Whatever you want, and it's yours," he said, "I mean, just think of what that means. You get to decide what happens. You get to see justice prevail, for everyone who has ever been wronged in the world. Just imagine - you can give Sally the throne, her rightful inheritance, bring Mobitropolis back to its glory. Tails can know a real life, grow up in a real family, he never needs to see a gangster or a gun for as long as he lives. You can give Knuckles his people back, rebuild his island. The Arack Empire never needs to opress a single mobian, and Robotnik never even needs to exist at all. Whatever you want, Sonic. _You can make everything the way it should be_."  
Sonic's eyes sparkled. "I really could, couldn't I?"  
"You really could."  
Sonic closed his eyes and imagined it. Everything could be set right, everything that he had fought for over the past years, he now had the power to see it happen. The Freedom Fighters could finally see the victory that had eluded them for so long. Everybody in this world plagued with misery could get what they deserved, and evil could be made never to prevail.  
Nobody need ever be hurt again.  
"It's all up to you, Sonic."  
Sonic looked up at his old friend and smiled from ear to ear. His eyes were filled with hope and optimism. Everything was going to be all right.  
"I'm going to do it," he said. "I'm going to make everything the way it should be."

XLVI

Footsteps broke the silence of the ethereal red caves, foreign sounds in a place where nobody ever walked. Three sets of feet, tourists in the dark heart of Mobius.  
The stone walls flickered with warm colours cast by the flames and the magma that flowed here and warmed the planet with its inextinguishable heat. Tall shadows danced against the wall.  
"I say. He certainly did mess this place up, didn't he."  
"Look, there he is! Over there!"  
"But which one is he? We should be cautious, my dear lizard, after all, we have made this mistake before."  
"No, it's him. I'm sure it's him!"  
"Yes. There is no question. It is him."  
"But is he... alive?"  
Sonic opened his eyes; blinked once, twice, and stared at the ceiling. Red light flickered on the stones above, and on the faces that stared down at him like angels from heaven. His friends, all alive, all well.  
He sat up and looked around the cavern. He had been lying right where he had stood when the Runes had taken him, but the circle of stones were gone. In their place were five small pools of molten rock. The Runes of Awakening, conduits for an unfathomable amount of energy, had completely melted away.  
Sonic looked up at the three others standing over him, eyes wide and fearful.  
"Has anything changed?" he asked, "Is anything different? Has anything changed?"  
"No, Sonic... nothing's changed, everything's the same as it was."  
Sonic smiled and lay down again.  
"Then everything is the way it should be."  
He passed out.

XLVII

The smell of coffee and cake was a welcome sensation after the harrowing ordeal of Sol-Hayyim. It was Kim's philosophy that anybody who was forced to endure that wretched place for any length of time had already paid a more than adequate price for a cup of joe and a slice of cheesecake. Sonic was inclined to agree.  
He looked out over the streets of Meath, busy people milling about, doing what they did every day - living, loving, hurting and feeling. Sonic intended to do a lot more of all four before his life was over, and he hoped it wouldn't be over for quite a while. His purpose on Mobius was far from finished - he had a feeling it was only beginning.  
The purposes of his new friends, also. Fate had not chosen this to be their final adventure, for all had escaped the clutches of death by inches. Even Niles, who seemed surely to have met with an inescapable demise, had averted it by using the last of his strength to dive into one of the giant water pipes that had been recently emptied after Cinos' meddlings. The Arack soldiers, encapsulated in their bulky CEC battle suits, hadn't a hope of pursuing. It seemed that everything that happened had indeed happened for some kind of reason. Sonic was overjoyed that it had.  
Lifting the cup to his mouth hurt, and he removed one of his gloves to look again at the bandaged hands underneath, hands almost shredded. They would heal, but they would scar.  
"You certainly did a number on those hands of yours," Niles said from across the table. The fox's leg, also bandaged, was propped up on another chair as he sipped at his cup of earl gray, finger pointing in the air like a bad stereotype.  
"I didn't," Sonic replied, replacing his glove with tender care.  
"Oh, that's right," Espio said with a chuckle. He talked with his mouth full of cake, one eyebrow poking up. "They're _Cinos'_ hands, right? 'Cause you switched bodies."  
"That's right."  
"Uh-huh. So tell me, Sonic, I forgot, was this before or after you ascended and were given the chance to remake the universe?"  
"Before."  
"Of course."  
Sonic laughed and took another bite of the best cake he had ever tasted. He thought he could eat the whole cake if they gave it to him. He and his three companions sat in silence for a while, but it was Espio who spoke again.  
"But hey. Supposing it's true. Supposing you really were given all of this power. There's something I don't get."  
Sonic looked up at him. "What's that?"  
"Why did you turn it down?"  
This was a question that even Sonic had spent a considerable amount of time pondering, but ultimately the answer was simple. He looked over his friends, and the people who lived their lives in this town, and knew that there was no other choice he would have made. For all the people who lived in this world, hurting and loving, living and dying, there was not a thing that he could think of, not a single tiny thing in all the world, that he wanted to change.  
"My place is here," he said, "I am what I am and I do what I do. It's not my job to be God - that position is already taken. It's a hard world, I know it's hard. But it's just fine."  
Roxanna Destra sat beside Espio, stirring her coffee but never drinking from it. She had never liked the taste of the hot, bitter stuff, and found its popularity remarkable.  
"How are you feeling?" Sonic asked her.  
She nodded. Out of the four of them, it was she who had taken the severest beating. Cinos hadn't killed her, being that she served a greater purpose to him alive, but that didn't stop him from thrashing into her. She wore bandaids and bandages, all superficial wounds and bruises, no breaks or internal injury. It hurt, but she would heal. She had treated enough injuries to know it.  
"So what about the antiverse?" Espio asked, "This supposed parallel universe you're always talking about? What's to stop more crackpots from flooding here with world domination fantasies?"  
"The Runes are no more," Roxanna replied, "The gateway is closed. There will be no more travel to and from the Lower Realm. That rotting place can rot alone." She turned to Sonic. "I thank you, Sonic," she said, "My people thank you. Your story will become legend when it is heard, it will pass down from generation to generation until the end of time. Rest assured that you have secured your immortality regardless."  
"I did what I had to do," Sonic replied, "And I'll more than likely do it again next week. Cinos wasn't the only bad seed out there."  
"Even so," Roxanna said, "You will always be welcome in our land. Septennia is always open to you."  
"Thanks. For now, I'm more anxious to see New Knothole again. More than anything. What about you two?"  
"Living in the wilderness," Niles said, "Among the animals. Sitting in the dirt drinking horrible tea and being bitten by mosquitoes, like a camping trip that never ends. Oh, I can't wait."  
"I'm stoked, Sonic," Espio added, free of the fox's sarcasm, "It sounds like heaven."  
Sonic smiled. "I know. It's going to feel good to have my feet planted on the ground again." He shifted his gaze to the horizon, toward the west, where the Great Forest spread out somewhere beneath the red setting sun.  
"But first," he said, "We've got some ground to cover. Rest up, guys, we set off first thing in the morning."  
"More walking," Niles muttered.  
"Sure. After all, the journey's just as much fun as the arrival."

* * *

CINOS:  
The Last Interlude

I've travelled the world from sea to sea and seen remarkable things,  
The falls of empires, the rise of mountains, the legacies of kings,  
But never again in all my life have I been able to find,  
A shadow-thing so fallen that his soul had never shined.

He had no heart, this cursed wretch, nor empathy had he,  
He didn't have a single trace of kindness I could see,  
This creature didn't care for the moral way to behave,  
And in his face the stony absence of the silent grave.

I met him on my travels once, I wish I never had,  
For staring into that abyss can drive a person mad,  
He danced with thoughts of murder, power, lust and hope defiled,  
And all at once it came to me, this is the Devil's child.

I asked, "Can you help me to understand you, Blackened Soul?  
Why is it that your heart has been replaced by a dark hole?"  
But he would not reply to me, this creature full of sin,  
He only looked at me, his face contorted with a grin.

I said, "I must inquire as to how someone can fall,  
So far as to desire the power to destroy all?"  
He still did not reply with words, but in his eyes I saw,  
The blackened pit residing in the depths of evil's maw.

I've travelled this globe all over, oh the lessons I have learned,  
The cultures I have visited, great empires overturned,  
But what a lesson I have learned from one whose name was Death,  
Who just wanted to devour until there was nothing left.  



	8. Everything the way it should be:Epilogue

AWAKENING  
S Peter Davis 

All characters (C) SEGA, Archie and SP Davis 2004 (unless otherwise noted).  
Used without permission

* * *

Everything the way it should be:  
Epilogue

* * *

(Whose woods these are I think I know, his house is in the village though)

The Great Forest was prettiest in the spring, when the entire world seemed newborn. The weather changed quickly, and one could never really predict what was going to happen, whether it would rain or shine, be windy or still, hot or cold. The sun was out today, it shone on the forest floor and evaporated the rain that had fallen overnight. It was raining more often, the monsoons weren't far away; you could always predict the season. Nature needed no guard, no watchman to remind it of its duties. It kept its own schedule, as tight as any timepiece made by technology's hand. The seasons, after all, were the oldest timepiece there was.

(He will not see me stopping here, to watch his woods fill up with snow)

Out here in the forest, his fur warmed by the morning sun, he admired the beauty of it all. In a world where so much was lost to the darkness, where so much evil ran rampant like an incurable cancer, it was still so simple to lie here and see that, yes, the world was still beautiful. No amount of evil could really diminish that. _The world was still beautiful_. The birds would still wake up every morning to sing their jolly song, the deer would still leap and forage, content with it all. No matter how much was lost to the darkness and how terrible everything seemed, the sun would still rise in the east the next morning, to evaporate the rain and to warm his fur. Life would go on, and life was okay. Even when life was bad, life was still okay.

(The only other sound's the sweep of easy wind and downy flake)

He heard the crunching of leaves, and he did not open his eyes. It was surely a deer, or a badger, or a wild pig, any of the things that moved about in this forest teeming with life. It was far too comfortable in his patch of grass to bother sitting up and looking around. Whatever it was would go away of its own volition, he wasn't bothering anybody lying here. There was plenty of room in this forest for the peaceful, and for those at peace with the world, who only wanted to enjoy then morning and warm their fur in the sun. He was not an intruder here, he and the forest were one.  
But the sound did not go away, it even seemed to approach him, and this was something slightly odd, because animals rarely approached this close to the village, and almost never approached its residents, wild as they were and untamed. His interest stimulated, he lifted his head to see what it was that dared to come so near.

(These woods are lovely, dark and deep, but I have promises to keep)

Out of the forest stepped a tired and travel-weary stranger, a _person_, and his solitude broken, he sat up and squinted against the morning sun to see who it was. This was after all a secret place, nobody trekked this far into the heart of the forest unless they knew what was here.  
He saw the face of this newcomer against the light, and he frowned. It surely couldn't be who he thought it was. They had told him that that was a lost chapter, an _old_ wound, healed as all wounds were by time and patience. They had believed this, but he hadn't. It simply never felt right to let go - and here, standing before him, was the evidence that he had been right all along. Sometimes, the laws of logic and likelihood had to give way to deeper feelings. Feelings so deep that only the soul knew them.  
Rising to his feet, he began to cry. Tears of an old pain came bubbling to the surface and he did not fight them, for they had more than earned their right to roll down his cheeks and redden his young eyes. He cried, and ran, ran right into the waiting arms of the traveller, who returned his embrace warm and tight. As he cried in the arms of this newcomer, he said over and over what he had held in his heart for the span of a year.  
"Sonic... I never lost faith, Sonic... I never lost faith..."

(And miles to go before I sleep)

"Me neither, Tails. Me neither."

(And miles to go before I sleep)

January 1, 2000 -  
August 8, 2005

* * *

**AFTERWORD:**

I have the following people to thank:

First and most, K.M. Hollar for her ongoing support, praise and inspiration, and for helping see this through from beginning to end.

No less importantly, I want to thank anyone who's ever read anything I've written from beginning to end. Especially those who read _this_ hulking thing from beginning to end. That means you. Thank you.

The talented artists who supplied artwork for this story deserve their due copyright credit, as well as my deepest thanks for their fantastic contributions.

_Seeing Double_ © Tash Dragon, 2003  
_The Holy Prophet_ © Tash Dragon, 2003  
_City in the Sky_ © Baz, 2004  
_Rolling Towards Him_ © K.M. Hollar, 2003  
_Roxanna_ © Baz, 2003  
_Wibble-Kee_ © K.M. Hollar, 2003  
_City of the Spiders_ © K.M. Hollar, 2005  
_Sonic and Cinos_ © K.M. Hollar, 2005  
_I Never Lost Faith_ © K.M. Hollar, 2005

Exerpt from _Sonic the Hedgehog #151_ © Archie Comics, 2005, art by Art Mawhinney, Jim Amash, John Workman, Josh & Aimee Ray.

All other images © S Peter Davis, 2005

Reproducing these images without the express written permission of the artist will not only invoke their wrath, but also mine.

I also thank the brilliant and sadly the late Robert Frost for the poetry that appears between the paragraphs of this saga. For those who are interested, the lines belong to the following works:

Chapter one and the epilogue - _Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening_  
Chapter two - _The Wood-Pile_  
Chapters four and five - _Birches_  
Chapter six - _The Tuft of Flowers_  
Chapter seven - _Good-Bye, and Keep Cold_

All are © Robert Frost.

Finally, in the spirit of this story's theme, I should thank God, at the very least for seeing fit in His wisdom not to kill me before I finally finished this thing, and to hope that He doesn't see its completion as an invitation to snuff me any time soon.

...Amen.


End file.
